Developmental Psychopathology and the Epidemiology and Expression of Psychopathology from Infancy Through Early Adulthood

Abstract

Developmental psychopathology examines the interaction of biological, psychological, and socio-contextual factors that determine trajectories of adaptive and maladaptive functioning over the life course. Understanding the continuity and discontinuity of developmental pathways is important for understanding the natural course of disorder and changes and similarities of symptoms throughout development. In this chapter we review the epidemiology and presentation of psychopathology from infancy through emerging adulthood from a developmental psychopathology perspective. We first discuss the developmental tasks and demands and then the epidemiology, in terms of prevalence and risk factors, by developmental stage and then exemplify for three specific types of disorders, anxiety disorders, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The burden of psychopathology increases with age throughout childhood, but the types of symptoms and predominance of different disorders change throughout the course of development depending upon the developmental demands of the stage.