The Study of Developmental Psychopathology in Adolescence: Integrating Affective Neuroscience with the Study of Context

This chapter aims at stimulating the development of a research agenda that will lead to identifying specific developmental processes for specific types of psychopathology in ways that can be used to leverage interventions. It first offers several general observations about psychopathology in adolescence that have emerged from research over the past several decades and that motivated the development of the present heuristic approach. Next, the chapter emphasizes overarching principles that apply across different types of psychopathology and serve as a basis for understanding what is unique about developmental psychopathology in adolescence. A new framework for research on psychopathology in adolescence is then introduced. The chapter further examines several aspects of developmental and contextual change that occur in adolescence, with detailed sections on changes in brain structure and function; in arousal, motivation, and affect regulation; in the development of regulatory competence; and in the major contexts in which adolescents spend time.