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A developmental psychology perspective on

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Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology Copyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
2002, Vol. 70, No. 1, 6 20 0022-006X/02/$5.00 DOI: 10.1037//0022-006X.70.1.6

A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on Adolescence

Dante Cicchetti Fred A. Rogosch

Mt. Hope Family Center and University of Rochester Mt. Hope Family Center

Developmental psychopathology offers an integrative framework for conceptualizing the course of

development during adolescence, with particular relevance for understanding continuity and the emer-
gence of psychopathology during this and subsequent developmental periods. In this article, the utility of
a developmental psychopathology perspective for informing the design of research, prevention, and
intervention is highlighted. Interdisciplinary, organizational models of development, emphasizing the
dynamic relations between the developing individual and internal and external contexts, are discussed.
Examination of boundaries between abnormal and normal development during adolescence offers
important vantage points for articulating diversity in the developmental course during this period.
Conceptualizing divergence and convergence in developmental pathways, continuity and discontinuity in
development, and the transactions of risk and protective processes leading to maladaptation, psychopa-
thology, and resilience are highlighted.

Research on adolescence has burgeoned over the course of the
past several decades. Testimony to the growing interest in the
period of adolescence is provided through an examination of the
table of contents in the Annual Review of Psychology volumes.
Although the first article in this publication devoted exclusively to
adolescence did not appear until the 38th volume (Petersen, 1988),
since 1995, reviews of adolescence have appeared every 3 years
(Compas, Hinden, & Gerhardt, 1995; Lerner & Galambos, 1998;
Steinberg & Morris, 2001). In addition, investigations on adoles-
cence and normative development, as well as work on adolescence
and psychopathology, have increased greatly in the scientific lit-
erature. Despite these advances, there remains a relative paucity of
published research addressing adolescence, development, and
psychopathology.
In view of the risks facing adolescents attributable to biological
and psychological developmental changes, as well as to more
external social and situational challenges they must confront, it is
not surprising that the study of adolescent development holds
much promise for advancing many of the goals embodied by a
developmental psychopathology perspective. A number of issues
that have been examined by investigators of adolescent develop-
ment mirror areas of interest to developmental psychopathologists.
These include (a) the use of interdisciplinary models of develop-
ment, (b) issues related to the continuity or discontinuity of de-
Dante Cicchetti, Mt. Hope Family Center, Rochester, New York, and
Department of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics, University of Roch-
ester; Fred A. Rogosch, Mt. Hope Family Center, Rochester, New York.
Our work on this article was supported in part by grants from the
National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Spunk Fund, Inc. We thank Tracy
Levee for her assistance in typing the manuscript. We acknowledge Can-
dace Cicchetti and Emory L. Cowen for their inspiration.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dante
Cicchetti, Shirley Cox Kearns Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and
Pediatrics, University of Rochester, and Director, Mt. Hope Family Center,
187 Edinburgh Street, Rochester, New York 14608.
velopment across the life course, (c) the boundary and linkages
between normal and maladaptive or pathological functioning, (d)
the transactions that occur between environmental and more
person-specific characteristics, (e) processes associated with risk
and resilience, and (f) the integration of basic research into the
design and provision of prevention and intervention.
Adolescence is a particularly compelling period of development
and one that lends itself to investigations guided by a develop-
mental psychopathology perspective. Biological, psychological,
and social systems undergo marked developmental changes during
adolescence (Feldman & Elliott, 1990; Spear, 2000a, 2000b).
Building on the normative advances accompanying adolescence,
research conceived within a developmental psychopathology
framework not only can inform knowledge of adolescent psycho-
pathology but also can contribute to an enhanced understanding of
developmental processes more generally (Cicchetti, 1984; Cic-
chetti & Cohen, 1995c; Sroufe, 1990). Over the life course, ado-
lescence is characterized by a rather lengthy transition phase in
which the individual is neither a child nor an adult. Although the
adolescent strives to move toward acquiring independence and the
attainment of the perceived rewards of adulthood, parents and
social institutions, recognizing the adolescents relative lack of
preparedness for the assumption of full adult responsibilities,
struggle with relinquishing their perceptions of the adolescent as a
child. Consequently, the flux and renegotiation inherent in this
developmental period increase the potential for both internal and
external conflict. Concomitantly, however, opportunities for
growth and the realization of new possibilities occur (Cicchetti &
Toth, 1996).
Adolescence has in the past been characterized as a period of
storm and stress (Hall, 1904), and the extreme problems in
adjustment exhibited by a few were generalized as normative
experiences for all adolescents (Freud, 1958). However, the storm
and stress of adolescence is neither universal nor inevitable. Most
adolescents cope successfully with the developmental demands of
this period and do not evidence extremes of maladaptation. Nev-

6
 SPECIAL SECTION: ADOLESCENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
ertheless, adolescence typically does generate more turmoil than
either childhood or adulthood (Resnick et al., 1997). Arnett (1999)
identifies three central features of this turmoil that may be height-
ened in adolescence: mood disruptions, risk behaviors, and conflict
with parents. Although adolescents exhibit large individual differ-
ences in these areas, the fact that mood disruptions and increased
risk taking are not atypical during this period of development
suggests that behaviors associated with internalizing and external-
izing forms of psychopathology are in ascendance. Thus, the
boundaries between normal and abnormal, as well as between
normative struggles and psychopathology, become less clear.
When are irritability, dysphoria, and emotional lability part of
normative adolescent self-searching versus symptoms of mood
disorder? When does experimentation with alcohol and drugs lapse
into substance abuse? Which adolescents are most vulnerable to
moving into the psychopathological extremes? Why do many
adolescents adapt successfully, and what protects adolescents from
developing significant disturbance? What current and historical
developmental factors influence the trajectories engaged that in-
volve normative struggles versus emerging disorder? What are the
future ramifications of adolescent psychopathology? These are
some questions relevant to adolescence that can be better under-
stood by invoking a developmental psychopathology perspective.
In this article, we explicate those aspects of developmental
psychopathology that are particularly useful for informing research
and intervention for adolescents who are at risk for, or who have
developed, psychopathology. Illustrative examples of the applica-
bility of a developmental psychopathology approach to adoles-
cence derived from research on various high-risk conditions and
psychopathological disorders are highlighted in this article. We
conclude with a discussion of approaches to prevention and inter-
vention for adolescent disorders. Our overarching goal in this
article is to elucidate those aspects of developmental psychopa-
thology that we view as integral toward understanding the trajec-
tories toward adolescent psychopathology, the course of disorder
during adolescence, and the mechanisms and processes that con-
tribute to adaptation versus maladaptation during adolescence and
throughout the life course.
Before proceeding further with our discussion, we want to
underscore that if taken in isolation, many aspects of a develop-
mental psychopathology perspective are equally applicable to
other fields. However, the incorporation and integration of con-
cepts that are more typically considered as discrete entities serve to
set a developmental psychopathology approach apart from more
traditional perspectives on disorder (see Cummings, Davies, &
Campbell, 2000, for an elaboration). Whereas traditional view-
points conceptualize maladaptation and disorder as inherent to the
individual, the developmental psychopathology framework places
them in the dynamic relation between the individual and the
internal and external contexts (Sameroff, 2001).
What Is Developmental Psychopathology?
Developmental psychopathology is an integrative discipline that
seeks to unify, within a developmental, lifespan framework, con-
tributions from multiple fields of inquiry with the goal of under-
standing psychopathology and its relation to normative adapta-
tion (Cicchetti, 1990, 1993). As a macroparadigm (Achenbach,
1990), developmental psychopathology strives to integrate knowl-
7
edge across scientific disciplines at multiple levels of analysis and
multiple domains, rather than espousing a singular theory that
would account for all developmental phenomena (Cicchetti, 1993;
Rutter & Sroufe, 2000).
Accordingly, Sroufe and Rutter (1984) conceptualized the dis-
cipline as the study of the origins and course of individual
patterns of behavioral maladaptation, whatever the age of onset,
whatever the causes, whatever the transformations in behavioral
manifestation, and however complex the course of the develop-
mental pattern may be (p. 18). The unifying developmental ori-
entation of the discipline results in new types of questions being
posed. For example, rather than being satisfied to compare a
normative and disordered group of adolescents on a phenomenon
of interest, the developmental psychopathologist strives to under-
stand how group differences in that phenomenon evolved over the
course of development (Cicchetti & Sroufe, 2000). Moreover, the
developmental psychopathologist is concerned not simply with
differences in symptom presentation at different developmental
periods but rather with the degree of convergence or divergence
in the organization of biological, psychological, and social-
contextual systems as they relate to symptom manifestation and
disorder (Boyce et al., 1998; Cicchetti & Toth, 1995, 1998).
A developmental psychopathology approach to adolescence
does not involve merely studying teenagers, as age alone does not
necessarily result in the elucidation of developmental process
(Rutter, 1989; Wohlwill, 1973). Adolescents could be investigated
by a downward extension of a phenomenon observed in adults, but
the fact that the investigation involved adolescents does not ensure
a developmental understanding. Rather, a developmental approach
requires that an issue of interest be conceptualized in terms of how
it would be manifested in view of the particular developmental
capacities and attainments of the adolescent period of develop-
ment. For example, the cognitive and emotional capacities for
coping with a traumatic event and the meanings attributed to the
occurrence are likely to be very different for individuals aged 6,
16, or 36. Thus, consideration of the developmental capacities of
the individual and linkages with other psychological and biological
domains are essential for understanding manifestations of distur-
bance during adolescence or, for that matter, during any develop-
mental period.
A developmental analysis also requires that the current func-
tioning of the adolescent be considered within the context of how
that level of functioning evolved over the course of development.
Distal influences and their dynamic relation to proximal causes
need to be delineated (Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Cicchetti & Toth,
1998). For example, contextual issues such as community violence
or membership in a gang can exert significant and potentially
deleterious effects on the family and on individual adolescent
development. A developmental analysis also benefits not only
from knowing the progression of experiences prior to adolescence
but also from knowing the subsequent developmental trajectories
of individuals into adulthood. Seemingly comparable groups of
adolescents may appear indistinguishable in adolescence but may
manifest very different patterns of adaptation in adulthood. In
addition to differences in subsequent experiences, the knowledge
of later developmental divergence may contribute to identifying
differences during the adolescent period that were not apparent at
the time. Thus, the lifespan orientation is central to how questions
are framed and how psychopathology is to be understood more
8 CICCHETTI AND ROGOSCH
broadly. Investigation of psychopathological functioning during
adolescence not only provides information about parameters and
origins of a disorder during this specific developmental period but
also, by means of comparison and contrast across the life course,
offers insight into potential variations in causal processes that may
operate according to when a disorder emerges.
For example, there is evidence that depressive disorders that
occur in childhood and those that occur during adolescence may be
differentially influenced by genetic and psychosocial factors. Both
childhood and adolescent depressive disorders increase the risk for
subsequent depression in adulthood. However, the linkage is much
stronger for adolescent onset depression (Harrington, Fudge, Rut-
ter, Pickles, & Hill, 1990). Furthermore, for both childhood and
adolescent onset depressive disorders, there is a higher familial
loading for depression in first- and second-degree relatives. For
children with depressive disorder, higher rates of criminality,
alcohol abuse, and family discord are found in their families
compared with the adolescent cases, and among relatives with
depression, there also is higher comorbidity with criminality (Har-
rington et al., 1997). These findings suggest that psychosocial
stressors may play a more prominent role in childhood onset
depression as compared with adolescent onset depression, under-
scoring the need for attention to the differential matrix of processes
that may contribute to psychopathology during different periods of
development.
From a developmental psychopathology perspective, the inter-
face between normal and abnormal is particularly informative for
understanding the course of development, and the period of ado-
lescence emerges as particularly valuable in this regard. Applying
knowledge of normative adolescent development to the study of
psychopathology is critical for delineating developmental pro-
cesses that have gone awry in those exhibiting a disorder. Thus,
even before the emergence of a psychopathological disorder, cer-
tain pathways signify adaptational compromises or failures in
normal development that probabilistically forebode subsequent
psychopathology. For example, children who are high on the
temperamental characteristic of behavioral inhibition and who
have developed an anxious attachment and maintained high sep-
aration anxiety through the early years of life, as well as a tendency
to withdraw during elementary school, may have consequently
developed a perspective of helplessness in regard to social chal-
lenges. When these children are faced with the transition to ado-
lescence with the accompanying new physical, academic, and
social challenges, intense anxiety may contribute to the develop-
ment of obsessions and compulsions and emergent obsessive com-
pulsive disorder in efforts to contain feelings of being unable to
manage the new responsibilities and demands of the period
(Carter, Pauls, & Leckman, 1995).
Understanding how psychopathological conditions evolve and
how aberrations in the organization of component developmental
systems that exist among disordered individuals eventuate may be
informative for elucidating critical components of development
that are not typically evident. In usual circumstances, the integra-
tion of component developmental systems may be so well estab-
lished that it is difficult to determine how normal functioning is
dependent on this integration. When there is a clear aberration or
deficit in a component system within a disordered population,
examination of how that atypicality relates to the organization of
other component systems can reveal information regarding the
interdependency of components not apparent under normal condi-
tions (see Cicchetti & Sroufe, 1978). Thus, the interest of devel-
opmental psychopathologists in the convergences and divergences
between normal and abnormal can be mutually beneficial for
understanding development across the range of variation (Cicchetti
& Cohen, 1995c; Sroufe, 1990).
It is important to note that developmental psychopathology is
not limited to the study of disorders, although studying disordered
functioning is of central interest to the discipline. Rather, the
elucidation of the developmental process within and among mul-
tiple biological and psychological systems in context across the
full range of functioning is a fundamental objective of de-
velopmental psychopathology (Boyce et al., 1998; Cicchetti &
Schneider-Rosen, 1986). Accordingly, developmental psycholo-
gists are primarily interested in understanding constancies in de-
velopmental processes as well as the typical, central tendencies
in functioning and adaptation (Radke-Yarrow & Zahn-Waxler,
1990). The extremes of the distribution in this context may be
regarded as problematic outliers or cases that need to be trans-
formed statistically to be more in line with the normal distribution.
Developmental psychopathologists regard such extremes as of
significance for study because of their potential to provide insight
into the full range of developmental processes and functioning. In
addition to the extremes, the subclinical range of functioning also
is important. Individuals at this range of adaptation may be vul-
nerable to the subsequent emergence of psychopathology on the
basis of the organization of their developmental systems, and the
investigation of processes that contribute to the later emergence of
a disorder, as well as processes that mitigate against disordered
outcomes, provides further insight into the full range of develop-
mental phenomena.
Finally, developmental psychopathologists are as interested in
individuals at high risk for the development of psychopathology
who do not manifest it over time as they are in individuals who
develop an actual disorder (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000).
Relatedly, developmental psychopathologists also are committed
to discovering pathways to competent adaptation despite exposure
to conditions of adversity (Cicchetti & Garmezy, 1993; Masten,
Best, & Garmezy, 1990). For example, in a longitudinal investi-
gation of the pathways to resilience and maladaptation from child-
hood to late adolescence, Masten and her colleagues (1999) found
that better adolescent intellectual functioning and parenting re-
sources were associated with good outcomes across a variety of
competence domains, even in the context of severe, chronic ad-
versity. Resilient adolescents had much in common with their
low-adversity competent peers, including average or better IQ,
good quality of parenting, and higher psychological well being.
Likewise, Garber and Little (1999), in a prospective longitudinal
investigation, followed up a large cohort of children of mothers
with major depressive disorder. In the sixth grade, 51 of the 185
offspring of depressed mothers were identified as being in the
high-competence group (i.e., high functioning and without psy-
chopathology). Two years later, 18 of the high-competence chil-
dren developed problems by early adolescence. In comparison
with the children who manifested a decrease in competence during
the transition to adolescence, the 33 continuously competent chil-
dren demonstrated more positive coping, an enhanced commitment
to school achievement, greater social support, and better family
relationships. Additionally, Garber and Little (1999) discovered
 SPECIAL SECTION: ADOLESCENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
that the group manifesting decreased competence experienced a
greater number of hassles during junior high school. It is interest-
ing to note that among the adolescents experiencing higher levels
of hassles during junior high school, high commitment to achieve-
ment and a positive family environment each moderated the rela-
tion between school hassles and competence.
Furthermore, Luthar and her colleagues (Luthar, 1991; Luthar,
Doernberger, & Zigler, 1993) found that disadvantaged adoles-
cents who manifested resilient functioning in some domains often
were at risk for difficulties in other realms of functioning. These
findings suggest that resilient individuals may need support to deal
with the emotional difficulties and distress that are often associated
with coping with the emotional difficulties they have had to
address and surmount.
These aspects of developmental psychopathology illustrate the
complexity of the tasks confronting the field and highlight ways in
which the discipline can offer new direction to how developmental
questions related to adolescence are posed and the answers that are
sought. Of course, no single study can provide answers to the
myriad of issues raised, but collectively, individual investigations
conceptualized from this perspective can progressively expand the
knowledge base on normality and psychopathology during adoles-
cence (see Cicchetti & Sroufe, 2000).
Organizational Perspective on Development
Although developmental psychopathology is not characterized
by the adherence to a unitary theoretical approach, the organiza-
tional perspective provides a powerful framework for conceptual-
izing the intricacies of the life span perspective on risk and
psychopathology, as well as on normal development (Cicchetti &
Schneider-Rosen, 1986; Sroufe & Rutter, 1984). The organiza-
tional perspective focuses on the quality of integration both within
and among the psychological and biological systems of the indi-
vidual. This attention to variations in the quality of integration
provides the framework on which developmental psychopatholo-
gists characterize developmental status. Moreover, the organiza-
tional perspective addresses how development occurs, specifically
identifying a progression of qualitative reorganizations within and
among the biological, psychological, and social systems that pro-
ceeds through differentiation and subsequent hierarchical integra-
tion (Werner & Kaplan, 1963).
In accord with the organizational perspective, development is
not viewed as consisting of a series of tasks that need to be
accomplished and that subsequently decrease in importance.
Rather, development is conceived as being comprised of a number
of age- and stage-relevant tasks. Although the salience of these
tasks may wane in relation to newly emerging issues, the tasks
remain important to adaptation over time (Cicchetti, 1993). A
hierarchical picture of adaptation emerges in which the successful
resolution of an early stage-salient issue increases the probability
of subsequent successful adjustment (Sroufe & Rutter, 1984). As
each new stage-salient issue comes to the fore, opportunities for
growth and consolidation, as well as challenges associated with
new vulnerabilities, arise. Thus, an ever-changing model of devel-
opment in which newly formed competencies or maladaptations
may emerge throughout the life course and transact with the
individuals prior developmental organization is proffered (Cic-
chetti & Tucker, 1994). Although early adaptation probabilistically
9
portends the quality of future functioning, the possibility of devel-
opmental divergence and discontinuity is recognized in this dy-
namic model (i.e., probabilistic epigenesis).
A principle of importance to developmental psychopathology is
that individuals exert an active role in directing the course of their
development. Although more distal historical factors and current
influences are important to the process of development, individual
choice and self-organization have increasingly been viewed as
exerting critical influences on development (Cicchetti & Rogosch,
1997; Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994). Early experience and prior levels
of adaptation neither doom the individual to continued maladap-
tive functioning nor inoculate the individual from future problems
in functioning. Moreover, not only because biological factors can
influence psychological processes but also because social and
psychological experiences exert actions on the brain by feeding
back on it to modify gene expression and brain structure, function,
and organization (Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994; Eisenberg, 1995;
Kandel, 1998; Nelson & Bloom, 1997), developmental plasticity
can be brought about by both biological and psychological self-
organization (Cicchetti, in press; Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994). Thus,
for example, the fact that most maltreated children evidence at
least some self-righting tendencies in the face of extreme adversity
attests to the strong biological and psychological strivings toward
resilience that virtually all humans and living organisms possess
(Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1997; Waddington, 1957). In contrast, the
absence of such resilient self-strivings in some maltreated children
attests to the deleterious and pernicious impact that traumatic
experiences can exert on biological and psychological develop-
mental processes.
Over the course of development, diverse prototypical organiza-
tions of biological and psychological systems emerge, and some of
these prototypes will exhibit vulnerability to developing psycho-
pathology (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998). The quality of organization
among systems, rather than the individual components in isolation,
influences the potential for emergent psychopathology. Adaptively
functioning individuals exhibit a coherence in the organization of
biological and psychological systems. In contrast, an individual
who is vulnerable to psychopathology will evidence an incoher-
ence in the organization across systems, with aberrations in one
system adversely impinging on other systems. Rather than a sin-
gular vulnerable prototype for psychopathology, different proto-
types of incoherent organization are likely to exist. Thus, individ-
uals enter adolescence with broad individual differences in the
quality of organization of internal biological and psychological
systems, and this developmental organization will greatly influ-
ence the pathways taken during this developmental period.
During adolescence, organizational developmental theorists
view the crucial stage-salient tasks of the period as the successful
transition to secondary schooling, academic achievement (i.e.,
learning skills that are needed for higher education or work),
psychological autonomy, forming close friendships within and
across gender, and deriving a cohesive sense of self-identity (Mas-
ten & Coatsworth, 1998). Because of space constraints, we discuss
two of the developmental tasks of adolescence, psychological
autonomy and the development of romantic relationships.
Psychological autonomy involves different dimensions, includ-
ing emotional autonomy from childhood dependency on parents,
behavioral autonomy in terms of independent functioning and
self-reliance, and cognitive autonomy involving self-confidence in
10 CICCHETTI AND ROGOSCH
decision making (Collins, Gleason, & Sesma, 1995). Achievement
of psychological autonomy is best attained through maintaining a
positive relatedness with parents that is transformed, rather than
through repudiation of parents (Hill & Holmbeck, 1986; Ryan &
Lynch, 1989; Steinberg, 1990). With respect to romantic relation-
ships, research suggests that although success in intimate relation-
ships has roots in general peer competence, there may be both
prosocial and deviant pathways of initial involvement with a
relationship partner. Neemann, Hubbard, and Masten (1995) pro-
vided evidence suggesting that the initiation of romantic involve-
ment during late childhood and early to middle adolescence may
engender harmful consequences for academic, job, and conduct
competence domains. However, the formation of romantic rela-
tionships later in adolescence no longer appears to exert negative
consequences (Neemann et al., 1995), perhaps because subse-
quently these relationships are more normative developmentally.
The internal resources that the adolescent has available for
resolving the salient developmental tasks of adolescence will de-
pend significantly on the quality of the resolution of stage-salient
tasks in childhood (Masten & Coatsworth, 1998). For the early
adolescent who has been able to achieve competent resolutions
progressively across the earlier stage-salient tasks, the internal
organization of developmental domains will be more flexible and
integrated, and there will be greater adaptive capacity available for
striving to resolve the challenges of the period. In contrast, an
individual who has incompetently resolved earlier stage-salient
tasks will enter the adolescent period with substantial liabilities in
terms of internal resources with which to negotiate the challenges
of the era. Individual adolescents will thus vary between these
extremes in terms of the adaptability of their internal organization
of developmental competencies that have emerged over the course
of earlier development.
As an illustration, the dynamic interplay of risk and protective
processes operating during adolescence also will act to influence
the ease or difficulty the adolescent experiences as he or she strives
to attain psychological autonomy. Clearly, both the quality of prior
developmental organization attained and the current interplay of
risk and protective processes encountered will contribute to indi-
vidual differences in the character of adolescent adaptation. More-
over, the quality of organization of developmental competencies
that individuals bring to the adolescent period is likely to influence
both how they interpret and respond to the risks to which they are
exposed and how they go about striving to attain psychological
autonomy. Adolescents with a competent developmental organi-
zation may articulate an area of special skill or interest (e.g, sports,
art, music, job, community volunteer work) and use this as a
vehicle to obtain self confidence in their own abilities and a sense
that they can make decisions and choices on their own. If such
adolescents engage in more risky strategies (e.g., drugs, delinquent
pranks), then the extent to which they are used is more likely to
remain at the experimental level.
In contrast, adolescents with more compromised organizations
of earlier developmental challenges are likely, for example, to
engage in risk behaviors more wholeheartedly as a means to strive
to demonstrate psychological autonomy. In so doing, the psycho-
logical autonomy they derive is likely to be compromised and less
advantageous to an emergent efficacious self. These adolescents
also are in jeopardy of greater negative consequences from the
extent to which they involve themselves in risky activities, which
can curtail later opportunities and possibly constitute psychopa-
thology (e.g., drug addiction, severe antisociality or crime). Alter-
natively, some adolescents with an incompetent organization of
earlier challenges may be reluctant to even strive for psychological
autonomy. Prior liabilities may restrict their self-generated ambi-
tions for independence, and they may cling to a dependent stance,
coasting and letting decisions be made for them, with little sense
of personal direction.
As the concept of probabilistic epigenesis connotes, the likeli-
hood of continuity of earlier to later forms of developmental
organization is not inevitable. However, early experience is im-
portant, and attention to how it has structured the organization of
the individuals biological and psychological systems is useful for
understanding individual differences in response to risk and stress
over development and in the current context, as well as for how
protective resources may be used. Nonetheless, the effects of early
experience are not immutable. Subsequent experience may alter
the course of biological and psychological development.
Given the many biological, psychological, and social
contextual transitions that occur during adolescence, many oppor-
tunities for reorganization are presented. Further, significant
changes in the balance of risk and protective processes have the
potential to alter the direction of developmental trajectories. Rutter
(1992) has suggested that such turning points in developmental
trajectories may be best accomplished when events that transpire
are dramatically different from what the individual has generally
experienced over the life course. For example, dropping out of
school for a teenager who had exhibited poor school performance
and grade failure would constitute an event consistent with an
established trajectory. However, for a successful student to drop
out of school because of an unplanned pregnancy, a very different
trajectory could be engaged, as opportunities for further education
are reduced and potential attainments that would have otherwise
been expected are not realized. Not only are life options limited,
but the contrast between potential and actual attainments could be
a source of distress, dysphoria, and hopelessness, with attendant
risks for depression. In contrast, Elder (1986) demonstrated the
dramatic change in life trajectories for some disadvantaged men
who joined the military. Continuing educational opportunities,
delays in marriage, and exposure to a wider range of potential
spouses were examples of subsequent events that resulted in im-
proved life course pathways. Alternatively, a turning point could
be initiated by a biological event. For example, among persons
developing schizophrenia in late adolescence who previously had
good premorbid competence, an activation of previously dormant
genes or a reorganization of neurological structures as a result of
brain maturation and lags in social cognitive development could
result in the onset of the disorder, marking a substantial turning
point and change in functioning and life course (Cicchetti &
Cannon, 1999; Keshavan & Hogarty, 1999).
More normative transitions during adolescence also hold the
potential for affecting the developmental trajectory individuals
follow, and the timing and context of these transitions may have a
significant influence. Graber and Brooks-Gunn (1996) delineated
several models of how transitions may influence development.
Differences in timing within a transitional period may have sig-
nificant impact on adjustment, as is the case with early versus
on-time versus late pubertal development (Brooks-Gunn & Reiter,
1990). Adolescents maturing early are potentially less likely to
 SPECIAL SECTION: ADOLESCENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
have developed the social and cognitive skills that will assist later
maturing individuals when they encounter the transition, thereby
making the earlier maturing adolescent more in jeopardy of ad-
justing less adaptively to the transition. Cumulative or simulta-
neous events co-occurring with a transitional period (e.g., men-
arche and entry into junior high school) also may stress coping
capacities and compromise adjustment, whereas adolescents expe-
riencing these transitions at different times will have greater re-
sources to adapt to each transition individually. Transitions may
also accentuate or intensify typical patterns of behavior of an
adolescent, as preexisting dispositional strategies (e.g., increased
moodiness, antagonism) are used to cope with the transition.
Alternatively, there may be perturbations in behavior in response
to transitions (e.g., onset of moodiness) as an adolescent struggles
with acquiring new behavior needed to adapt to the transition.
Adolescents also may become more reactive during periods of
transition, in which sensitivity to stresses experienced may be
exacerbated. Additionally, the impact of transitions on capacities
to adapt may be influenced by the degree of fit between the needs
of the individual during the transition and the supportiveness of
the context encountered. Thus, transitions may have a significant
impact on the developmental course and are critical points in
which to assess continuity and discontinuity in development.
In the next section, we examine illustrative principles inherent to
a developmental psychopathology perspective in more detail. We
pay particular attention to providing examples of how these prin-
ciples can elucidate the understanding of the emergence of prob-
lem behaviors and psychopathology in adolescence.
Illustrative Developmental Psychopathology Principles
and Their Relation to the Study of Psychopathology
in Adolescence
Normal and Abnormal
A basic premise that has guided work within developmental
psychopathology is that knowledge of normal development is
necessary to comprehend psychopathology and that, similarly, the
examination of psychopathological development can elucidate the
understanding of the normal functioning of individuals (Cicchetti,
1984, 1990). Because all pathology can be viewed as a distortion,
disturbance, or degeneration of normal functioning, in order to
comprehend psychopathology, the normal functioning with which
psychopathology is compared must be fully grasped. Thus, a core
aspect of a developmental psychopathology perspective lies in its
focus on both normal and abnormal, both adaptive and maladap-
tive developmental processes (Sroufe, 1990).
Knowledge of the biological, cognitive, social cognitive, and
social contextual changes that occur during normal adolescent
development can contribute to the comprehension of serious men-
tal disorders that emerge in adolescence. For example, an under-
standing of normative biological processes that occur during ado-
lescence, such as the continued maturation of the prefrontal cortex
(Thompson & Nelson, 2001) and the overproduction of gray
matter just prior to puberty (Rapoport et al., 1999), should provide
valuable insights into some of the mechanisms that eventuate in
psychopathology.
Specifically, the spurt in gray matter that occurs during adoles-
cence predominates in the frontal lobes, the seat of executive
11
functions, such as reasoning, impulse control, and planning. In
teenagers affected by the rare childhood onset form of schizophre-
nia, structural magnetic resonance imaging scans have revealed
that there is four times as much gray matter loss (i.e., excessive
synaptic pruning) in the frontal lobes than that which occurs
normally (Rapoport et al., 1999). It appears likely that the pro-
cesses underlying the normal development and maturation of cor-
tical circuitry and connectivity have gone awry in this variant of
schizophrenia (Arnold, 1999; Weinberger, 1987). Unraveling these
misorganizations in brain development should greatly enhance our
understanding of the genesis and epigenesis of schizophrenic dis-
orders as well as provide insight into the organization of normal
brain development.
Developmental Pathways
As a developmental period, it is essential to view adolescence in
lifespan perspective. Attention to developmental pathways emerg-
ing earlier in development that eventuate in psychopathology or
maladaptation in adolescence is critical for understanding variation
in trajectories operating for different individuals. Both current risk
and protective processes, as well as the history of their dynamic
transactions and how they have influenced the evolving individual
over the course of development, need to be examined. Moreover,
because adolescents have not passed through the major risk period
for adult disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, negative
affect alcoholism), nonsymptomatic adolescents may be on path-
ways toward adult disorders, although not currently manifesting
those disorders at this stage of development. Being able to identify
adolescents who are at risk for subsequent adult disorders is
important for the elucidation of prodromal organizations that may
subsequently evolve into adult psychopathology.
The general systems theory concepts of multifinality and equi-
finality (von Bertalanffy, 1968) are central for conceptualizing
developmental pathways (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996). Multifinal-
ity specifies that diverse outcomes are likely to evolve from any
original starting point. Individuals sharing characteristics at a
specified starting point will not exhibit the same pattern of later
developmental outcomes. Rather, varied outcomes will emerge.
The ongoing dynamic transaction of risk and protective processes
experienced uniquely by individuals will eventuate in different
outcomes unfolding over the course of development. For example,
being the offspring of a parent with alcoholism may contribute to
an adolescent developing alcohol abuse and dependence. How-
ever, not all such offspring will develop alcoholism, either in
adolescence or subsequently (Luthar, Cushing, Merikangas, &
Rounsaville, 1998). Other psychopathologies (e.g., antisocial per-
sonality disorder, major depression), as well as adaptive function-
ing, may occur. Identifying the processes and their developmental
progressions that contribute to the dispersion in outcomes is an
important goal of developmental psychopathology.
A further illustration of multifinality is provided in Lee Robinss
(1966) classic work Deviant Children Grown Up. Children with
conduct disorder were found to manifest differential outcomes in
adulthood. Some displayed adult antisocial personality disorder,
whereas others developed schizophrenia, and yet others exhibited
normal adaptation.
Likewise, Cicchetti and Toth (1995) have concluded that not all
maltreated individuals are equally affected by their traumatic ex-
12 CICCHETTI AND ROGOSCH
periences. An array of psychological and biological deviations are
displayed by individuals who have experienced sexual and phys-
ical abuse, neglect, and emotional abuse. Moreover, a subsample
of these individuals function resiliently, despite their adverse ex-
periences (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1997; Luthar et al., 2000).
In contrast, the concept of equifinality specifies that a common
outcome will develop over time from different starting points,
indicating that diversity in processes is involved in attaining the
shared outcome (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996). For example, some
adolescents who develop a depressive disorder in adolescence may
have a genetic predisposition for the disorder; others may have
grown up in a home with substance abusing parents or experienced
child maltreatment. Parental loss through death early in develop-
ment may have occurred for others; still other adolescents may
have more benign early experiences but may have struggled with
the physical changes of puberty occurring as they entered junior
high school. Thus, the common outcome of depression in adoles-
cence is likely to result from diverse processes across different
individuals rather than from all adolescents following the same
progression to depression.
In an illustration of the concept of equifinality, Gjerde and
Block (1996) have proposed different gender-based pathways to
depression by early adulthood. In terms of expression of dyspho-
ria, girls tend to be more autocentric, or inner oriented, resulting in
heightened attention to their own thoughts and feelings of distress,
low self-esteem, and preoccupations with adequacy of the self. In
contrast, allocentric, or outer-directed, modes of symptom expres-
sion are more common in boys, resulting in them enacting their
frustrations on the world with impulsiveness, anger, and antago-
nism. For adolescents, both forms of symptom expression are
likely to interfere with the successful resolution of adolescent
adaptational tasks. The two different forms of expression result in
girls ruminating and having a negative self-focus when experienc-
ing sadness and anger, and boys being more likely to be aggressive
and antagonistic and to exhibit poor impulse control. Gjerde and
Block found that the different sets of characteristics for girls and
boys at age 14 predicted depressive feelings at age 18. However,
in early adulthood at age 23, the manifestations of depression
tended to converge for men and women, with men beginning to
evidence more internal distress and women exhibiting more an-
tagonism. It is important to note that the predictors of depression
in boys were evident as early as nursery school, in terms of
undersocialization of impulse and antagonism (Block, Gjerde, &
Block, 1991). Observable predictors for girls did not appear until
adolescence, reflecting girls tendency to suppress outward expres-
sion of distress. Thus, females and males appeared to follow
different developmental trajectories to depression through adoles-
cence into early adulthood. The common outcome of depression
evolves along different developmental pathways.
Relatedly, Duggal, Carlson, Sroufe, and Egeland (2001) re-
ported that there appear to be different predictors of childhood
onset depression as compared with adolescent onset depression,
suggesting variation in processes promoting depression in different
developmental periods. Maternal depression during childhood was
related to both childhood and adolescent onset of depression. In
contrast, childhood onset depression also was strongly influenced
by additional factors related to pervasive deficits in the overall
family context, including poor early supportive care of the child,
abuse, and early maternal stress. Among adolescents, gender dif-
ferences emerged for the predictors of depression. For girls, ma-
ternal depression during childhood was strongly associated with
high depressive symptomatology during adolescence, whereas for
boys, high depressive symptomatology was linked to deficits in the
early supportive care they received. Thus, different processes
appear to be prominent in promoting a common depressive out-
come for boys versus girls during adolescence.
Neumann, Grimes, Walker, and Baum (1995) offer support that
there are different developmental pathways to schizophrenia. The
behavior problems that are antecedents to schizophrenia were
found to vary in their developmental course, with some behavior
problems revealing an insidious but consistent escalation across
childhood and others manifesting more precipitous increases in
adolescence. Finally, a third subgroup was identified that dis-
played more pronounced behavior problems that increased with
age and that exhibited more neuromotor anomalies.
The identification of diverse pathways through which neurode-
velopmental anomalies may result in schizophrenia provides in-
sight into how specificity and differentiation into a syndrome may
result from a commonality of initiating circumstances. These mul-
tiple pathways embrace a number of possible contributors which
may potentiate or mediate the links between early neurodevelop-
mental anomalies and schizophrenia in genetically vulnerable in-
dividuals. These include the normal developmental changes that
take place during late adolescence and early adulthood, such as (a)
synaptic pruning of the prefrontal cortex (Feinberg, 1982; McGlas-
han & Hoffman, 2000), (b) pubertal increases in gonadal hormones
during adolescence (Spear, 2000a, 2000b), (c) developmental
transformations in prefrontal cortex and limbic brain regions (Ke-
shavan & Hogarty, 1999), (d) continued myelination of intracor-
tical connections (Benes, 1989; Gibson, 1991; Yakovlev & Le-
Cours, 1967), (d) alterations in the balance between mesocortical
and mesolimbic dopamine systems (Benes, 1989, 1994, 1997), (e)
the stress that arises during postnatal social development (Kesha-
van & Hogarty, 1999; Walker & Diforio, 1997), (f) the transfor-
mations that occur in cognitive and social cognitive development
(Keating, 1990; Noam, Chandler, & LaLonde, 1995; Spear, 2000a,
2000b), and (g) the growing importance of the peer group. Such an
integrative, interdisciplinary approach is necessary to capture the
full complexity of schizophrenic illness, including the multiple
pathways to, and the diverse outcomes associated with, the disor-
der. As Cicchetti and Tucker (1994) pointed out, such an interac-
tion among these various changing developmental domains must
also take into account the individuals active strivings for self-
organization that critically affect brain development. Relatedly,
such a perspective suggests that specific treatments should be
developed and implemented for use at particular developmental
stages, before, after, and during illness episodes.
Research on antisocial personality disorder provides another
illustration of the concept of equifinality. For example, Stattin and
Magnusson (1996) noted that the correlations between childhood
and adolescent/adult antisociality and adjustment relations often
range between .20 and .40. Despite the importance of these devel-
opmental findings in terms of demonstrating continuities in devel-
opment, the relations are not strong, and more occurs from early in
development onward than stability over time. One reason for not
observing stronger relations between early child externalizing dif-
ficulties and adolescent delinquency is that, although there is
continuity for a group of problem children, there also is an emer-
 SPECIAL SECTION: ADOLESCENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
gent group of youth who display delinquent behaviors during
adolescence but who did not have significant problems in child-
hood. Research examining influences on delinquency based only
on behavior in adolescence would combine the two groups, despite
there being different developmental histories and likely different
etiologies for disturbance in adolescence. This would obscure
causal influences for both groups. In fact, different subgroups of
adolescent delinquents with different etiologies have consistently
been delineated by various research groups (Loeber, 1990; Moffitt,
1993; Patterson & Yoerger, 1993; Steinberg, 1987). Moffitt (1993)
labeled these groups life-course persistent (LCP) and adoles-
cence limited (AL). The LCP group evidences early conduct
disturbance and mild neuropsychological deficits (Moffitt, 1993),
as well as more early family dysfunction (Aguilar, Sroufe, Ege-
land, & Carlson, 2000), and has much greater likelihood of adult
criminality. In contrast, the AL group does not evidence early
difficulties in development, has better social skills in adolescence,
and is likely to desist from delinquency and not evidence adult
criminality. The LCP versus AL distinction, which is revealed
through a developmental perspective, underscores the importance
of expecting individuals with an identified disorder to have differ-
ent etiologies, rather than sharing a common pathway.
Although the AL group appears to be less pathological, these
youth are not without impairment beyond their delinquent behav-
iors. Aguilar et al. (2000) found that AL youth were more likely to
report high levels of internalizing symptoms and life stress, sug-
gesting that these adolescents may ultimately face more than
transitory developmental behavior problems. In fact, in a prospec-
tive longitudinal investigation, Moffitt, Caspi, Harrington, and
Milne (in press) found that the AL group evidenced elevations in
various indicators of maladaptive functioning at age 26, including
impulsivity, mental health problems, substance abuse, financial
problems, and property offenses. Thus, their later adaptation man-
ifested negative sequelae, and their adolescent delinquent prob-
lems were not without adverse developmental implications.
Nevertheless, the LCP group did demonstrate far greater conti-
nuity and severity of antisocial behavior, including much more
extensive mental health problems, psychopathic personality traits,
and substance abuse and dependence. These individuals also were
more likely to have a larger number of children, have financial and
work problems, and exhibit violence against women and children.
Violent and drug-related crime also was more prevalent. Thus, this
subgroup of antisocial youth, distinguished by childhood behav-
ioral disturbances and family dysfunction, followed a pathway to
more extreme adult antisocial behavior and more pervasive failure
in adult adjustment.
Moffitt et al. (in press) also reported on a group of individuals
who had exhibited antisocial problems in childhood but whose
delinquent activity in adolescence was limited. By adulthood,
these men largely did not appear to have recovered from their
childhood behavioral disturbances. At age 26, they exhibited a
pattern of low-level chronic offending. They also displayed ele-
vated rates of depression and anxiety disorders and were socially
isolated. Thus, childhood antisocial problems signified not tran-
sient problems for these individuals but rather a more enduring
pattern of dysfunction that evolved in a different manner from that
of their LCP peers.
Increasingly, analogous to the important distinction between AL
and LCP delinquency, attention also has been directed toward
13
differentiating subgroups of adolescents who may have different
patterns of risk associated with their substance use. For example,
Zucker, Fitzgerald, and Moses (1995) differentiated three types of
alcoholism, including antisocial, developmentally limited, and
negative affect. The antisocial and developmentally limited types
have considerable similarity to the two types of delinquency that
have been identified. Of interest, the negative affect type does not
emerge until young adulthood. The developmental precursors to
these three types of alcoholism are substantially different, under-
scoring the importance of identifying multiple developmental pat-
terns that may eventuate in disorder rather than assuming a com-
mon set of etiological factors operates for all. Attention to the
distinct causal processes that operate in different subgroups
through the use of pattern-analysis and person-centered ap-
proaches provides a more complex view of the varied develop-
mental trajectories of substance use disorders and their impact on
long-term risk for disorder as well as recovery (Chassin, Curran,
Hussong, & Colder, 1996; Schulenberg, Wadsworth, OMalley,
Bachman, & Johnston, 1996).
The principles of multifinality and equifinality suggest that
investigations examining adolescent psychopathology should oc-
cur within a broad framework. Specifically, different psychopa-
thology conditions and adaptive outcomes should be considered
potential results of a common risk condition, and a specific form
of psychopathology may develop in different individuals through
alternative developmental processes.
Delineating developmental pathways over the course of devel-
opment requires an ability to articulate continuities of behavioral
organization across developmental time. Given the progression of
expanding abilities and capacities and changing contexts as an
individual develops, the meaning of the same behavior at different
developmental periods may change. For example, drinking alcohol
at age 10 versus at age 18 suggests very different meanings in
terms of what the same behavior signifies (atypical or pathologic
vs. normative). Thus, the identical behavioral expression of an
underlying process at different developmental periods, that is,
homotypic continuity, is likely to be rare (Kagan, 1971). In con-
trast, heterotypic continuity, or the manifestation of the same
underlying process through different behavioral presentations at
different developmental periods, should be anticipated. Hetero-
typic continuity has been demonstrated by changing manifesta-
tions of autonomy struggles at different points in adolescence
(Allen, Hauser, OConnor, Bell, & Eickholt, 1996). In the context
of parentadolescent interaction, hostility earlier in adolescence
did not demonstrate continuity with midadolescent hostility (i.e., a
lack of homotypic continuity). Rather, midadolescent hostility
toward parents was found to be predicted by earlier adolescent
difficulty in establishing autonomy and relatedness in relation to
parents, as indicated by the adolescents autonomy-undermining
behaviors (e.g., personalizing disagreements, prematurely recant-
ing ones position). Thus, a changing behavioral manifestation of
the same developmental process at different periods in adolescence
was demonstrated.
Sroufe (1979) articulated the concept of coherence in develop-
ment, specifying that the meaning, organization, and function of
behaviors be identified in order to delineate behavioral continuities
in developmental pathways, rather than focusing on the repetition
of discrete behaviors. Thus, heterotypic continuity, involving per-
sistence of the underlying organization and meaning of behavior
14 CICCHETTI AND ROGOSCH
despite changing behavioral manifestation, is likely to be encoun-
tered frequently and should be central to how adolescent develop-
ment is conceptualized.
Cultural Influences
The influence of culture on development and psychopathology
has not received adequate attention (Garcia Coll, Akerman, &
Cicchetti, 2000; Hoagwood & Jensen, 1997), yet the milieu in
which an adolescent develops is likely to profoundly influence the
developmental course. The dynamic interplay of risk and protec-
tive processes may have differential impact depending on the
cultural norms, practices, values, and beliefs. Cultures may be
characterized on a continuum ranging from sociocentric (empha-
sizing community, family, and interconnectedness) to individual-
istic (emphasizing individuality, autonomy, and personal achieve-
ment; Schweder & Bourne, 1991). The ideal self correspondingly
varies with respect to the degree to which the self is defined in
terms of relatedness to others versus in terms of autonomy and
achievement. As such, cultural groups will differ in their social-
ization goals for desired outcomes for well-functioning members
of the culture. Norms for appropriate and inappropriate behavior
will have different thresholds, and discipline strategies will vary in
accord with what behaviors are regarded as desirable or unaccept-
able. Gender expectations also may vary.
Canino and Guarnaccia (1997) noted that psychiatric epidemi-
ological studies have shown that Puerto Rican adolescents exhibit
lower rates of conduct disorder and substance abuse than adoles-
cents in mainland America, and this difference may be attributable
to greater monitoring and supervision of teenagers in the culture,
consistent with a more sociocentric emphasis, and a more author-
itarian parenting orientation, fostering deference to adults and
social institutions. Conversely, the high rate of teen pregnancies
among Puerto Rican youth (Garcia Coll & Vazquez Garcia, 1996)
may suggest that these girls assume more adultlike responsibilities
earlier in their lives, thereby decreasing the likelihood of their
involvement in conduct disordered and substance-abusing
behaviors.
To provide a further illustration, Luthar and McMahon (1996)
discovered that inner-city youth whose peer representations were
aggressive nonetheless were popular with their peers. Thus, in
addition to the more typical pathway to peer popularity (i.e.,
prosocial behaviors, academic success), Luthar and McMahon
identified a less typical pathway characterized by disruptive and
aggressive behaviors and poor academic functioning. They hy-
pothesized that within the crime-, violence-, and poverty-laden
disenfranchised communities where these youth reside, aggressive
behaviors that are viewed as deviant by the mainstream may be
associated with prestige and high status among particular socio-
economic groups.
Thus, risk and protective processes and the manner in which
they transact may vary depending on priorities of the culture.
Consequently, the individuals response to an event, as well as the
reactions of other members of the culture, will influence the
salience of the event and how it is responded to. Culture also may
influence the mode of symptom expression. Cultural values, be-
liefs, and practices may tend to suppress manifestation of distress
in one domain (e.g., socioemotional) while tolerating the expres-
sion in another domain (e.g., physical; Weisz, Suwanlert, Chaiya-
sit, & Walter, 1987). For example, Serafica (1997) noted a ten-
dency for greater physical manifestations of distress to be tolerated
among Asian American families, as compared with less acceptance
of psychological expression.
Immersion in the mainstream culture by immigrating adoles-
cents from other cultures is likely to generate significant difficul-
ties in adaptation, particularly if the cultural values of the home
culture are in conflict with the mainstream culture (Canino &
Guarnaccia, 1997). Acculturation pressures may generate stress for
youth as they bridge two cultural worlds. Similarly, adolescents
from existing subcultures nested within the broader American
culture may have similar conflicts when the meaning they attribute
to behaviors and events is at odds with the mainstream cultural
proscriptions. Thus, culture must be incorporated into how devel-
opmental psychopathologists conceptualize causal processes influ-
encing the developmental course and how adaptation and psycho-
pathology are defined (Garcia Coll et al., 2000; Hoagwood &
Jensen, 1997).
Prevention and Intervention
Now that we have examined some illustrative principles of
developmental psychopathology and their relevance to investigat-
ing adolescent adaptation and psychopathology, we discuss how a
developmental psychopathology framework can similarly assist in
the development and provision of prevention and intervention to
adolescents who are at risk for or who have developed psychopa-
thology. Of course, we are not suggesting that a developmental
psychopathology perspective is necessary to treat adolescent psy-
chopathology. However, we do believe that such a framework can
enhance the treatment of adolescent psychopathology regardless of
the specific theoretical orientation used.
Although it might be assumed that logical connections exist
between the provision of psychotherapeutic interventions to chil-
dren and adolescents and developmental theory and research, far
too few bridges have been forged between these areas of knowl-
edge (Cicchetti & Toth, 1992; Shirk & Russell, 1996; Toth &
Cicchetti, 1999). Because nondevelopmental, adult-derived classi-
fication guidelines have historically been applied to formulating
diagnoses of the mental disorders of childhood and adolescence
(Jensen & Hoagwood, 1997; Silk, Nath, Siegel, & Kendall, 2000),
it is not surprising that adevelopmental approaches to intervention,
frequently drawn from the adult literature, often have been the
norm when providing interventions to children and adolescents.
The perpetuation of the developmental uniformity myth (Ken-
dall, Lerner, & Craighead, 1984) to interventions for children and
adolescents, wherein it is assumed that mental disorders manifest
themselves similarly regardless of age and therefore do not require
therapeutic techniques that are sensitive to developmental change,
has impeded efforts to provide theoretically guided and develop-
mentally appropriate services to children and adolescents.
Fortunately, an increased dialogue among theorists, basic re-
searchers, and professionals interested in providing developmen-
tally guided prevention and intervention to children and adoles-
cents has occurred in recent years. A major impetus to this process
has emanated from the field of developmental psychopathology.
As a growing number of research investigations have illustrated
how the study of the interface between normal and abnormal
development is mutually enriching for scientists of each persua-
 SPECIAL SECTION: ADOLESCENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
sion, the application of findings conceptualized within the devel-
opmental psychopathology genre to intervention efforts has simi-
larly increased. In fact, in recognition of the fields importance, the
Institute of Medicine (1994) report on reducing risks for mental
disorders through preventive intervention highlighted develop-
mental psychopathology as one of four core sciences considered to
be necessary for advancing prevention and intervention efforts for
children and adolescents.
Because adolescence marks a significant transition period in
development, with ensuing reorganization within and among bio-
logical and psychological systems and the consequent emergence
of new behavioral organizations, this period provides an important
opportunity for prevention and intervention (Holmbeck et al.,
2000; Toth & Cicchetti, 1999; Weisz, 1997). Clearly, all adoles-
cents need to negotiate the developmental tasks of the period.
Thus, for adolescents who have developed competently, contexts
need to continue to scaffold and optimize these individuals on-
going success. For adolescents who have had a compromised
earlier development or who have exhibited psychopathology, ad-
olescence presents an important window for fostering change to
deflect the quality of adaptation onto a more competent develop-
mental trajectory. Developmental psychopathology offers an im-
portant foundation for conceptualizing how to achieve these goals.
A major common theme that should undergird prevention ef-
forts is how best to promote competent resolution of the primary
developmental tasks of adolescence. Many problem behaviors of
adolescence, particularly when engaged in to extremes, can be
conceptualized as compromised attempts to grapple with establish-
ing psychological autonomy. Conversely, adolescents who do not
strive adequately to attain psychological autonomy will be depen-
dent and less prepared to establish their own direction and identity
in early adulthood. In effect, autonomy strivings can cut across
stage-salient issues of adolescence such as the formation of inti-
mate relationships and the establishment of a cohesive sense of
self-identity.
Contexts need to optimize adolescents strivings for psycholog-
ical autonomy, and this should occur in a graded fashion in accord
with changing needs as the adolescent matures. For example,
mismatches between contexts and the developmental needs of the
early adolescent, as exemplified by organizational features of
traditional junior high schools that do not promote a successful
transition, can lead to dismotivation and may stimulate problem
behavior (Eccles, Lord, & Roeser, 1996). Restructuring junior high
schools in accord with the developmental needs of early adoles-
cents would potentiate more adaptive academic and social striv-
ings. Similarly, Keating and MacLean (1996) reported that gender-
segregated math and science classrooms in 9th and 10th grades had
a significant influence on fostering subsequent interest and
achievement in math and science for girls. Structural change
allowed for girls to gain more self-confidence in abilities, which in
mixed-gender classroom were reduced because of discomfort dur-
ing those years in competing with boys.
Siegel and Scovill (2000) similarly highlight the need for teen-
agers environments to be structured so as to optimize their success
in negotiating developmental tasks. The meaning adolescents as-
cribe to problem behaviors is likely to differ from that of adults
and most likely involves a strategy to assert autonomy. Rather than
be provided exclusively with restrictions, adolescents would ben-
efit from contexts that provide alternative avenues for asserting
15
autonomy in ways that both have personal meaning and promote
self-esteem and personal accomplishment (Siegel & Scovill,
2000). Through processes of person environment correlation, in-
dividuals progressively select or delimit the particular environ-
ments that they experience. However, the niches that adolescents
have available to them will influence the extent to which individ-
ual characteristics are accentuated. Wachs (1996) noted that some
adolescents, particularly those in impoverished and disorganized
communities, may have few niche options available and that the
ones they do have may be largely negative. Thus, providing more
positive niches to adolescents that match their particular strengths
may facilitate their exhibition of competence and striving. This
may be particularly true for adolescents who do not excel in
academics or athletics or who are highly unconventional and
therefore may need alternative avenues for expressing and building
their unique strengths.
Masten and Curtis (2000) reviewed the complementarity of
constructs of competence and psychopathology and noted that
although the two domains are distinct, they are inextricably inter-
woven. Building on adolescents strengths and promoting compe-
tence thus are important prevention strategies to protect against
emergent psychopathology. Such an approach based on enhancing
psychological wellness has been advocated consistently by
Cowen (1994; Cicchetti, Rappaport, Sandler, & Weissberg, 2000).
Cowen (1994) outlined five essential elements for promoting
psychological wellness: promoting wholesome early attach-
ments, rooting early core competencies, engineering wellness-
enhancing settings, acquiring effective stress coping skills, and
empowerment.
Implicit in Cowens (1994) formulation is a recognition of the
importance of the organizational perspective on development and
the building of a foundation of competence in the early years,
beginning with a secure attachment and further acquisition of
competencies as subsequent developmental tasks are negotiated.
Consequently, promoting competence and psychological wellness
in adolescence must be conceptualized within a developmental
lifespan perspective; interventions designed to promote positive
attainments during the early years also can be considered as
instilling a foundation of competence that should contribute to a
greater likelihood of psychological wellness in adolescence. For
example, interventions to reduce preschool emotion dysregulation,
aggression, and impulsivity through promoting competent resolu-
tion of the developmental tasks of the period could reduce the
emergence of conduct disorder during elementary school and the
engagement of a life-course-persistent antisocial pathway (Moffitt,
1993).
Cowens (1994) third goal of engineering wellness-enhancing
settings is consistent with the types of school structural changes
and opportunity-enhancing contexts advocated above (Eccles et al.
1996; Keating & MacLean, 1996; Siegel & Scovill, 2000). All
adolescents will continue to confront stressors in their lives, but the
extent of intense stress is escalated in impoverished and structur-
ally disorganized communities. Thus, all adolescents need effec-
tive coping skills. Coping skills may be acquired over the course
of development as competence in the affective, cognitive, and
social domains is attained. However, new coping skills may be
required for adolescents who do not have benign and supportive
developmental histories. Programs geared toward building adap-
tive coping skills in such youth are important for helping these
16 CICCHETTI AND ROGOSCH
adolescents in the challenges they face during this period. Finally,
empowerment as a guiding strategy to promote psychological
wellness involves appreciation of adolescents experiences within
the specific contexts and cultures they reside in. Prevention and
wellness enhancement efforts must be formulated in terms of the
unique meaning and sociocultural realities of the group of interest,
and with their participation. The empowerment ideal is likely to be
particularly important in order to reach adolescents in ways that
are meaningful to them and that empower them to make adaptive
choices as they negotiate the adolescent era.
Luthar and Cicchetti (2000) emphasized that findings from
research on resilience in high-risk youth, particularly those in
impoverished communities who face multiple interacting risk fac-
tors, are valuable for informing preventive efforts. Identifying
processes that contribute to positive adaptation despite profound
adversity directs attention toward factors that would be important
to promote in the lives of high-risk children generally. Such factors
may derive from different levels of the social ecology, including
individual characteristics, family features, and community re-
sources. The collective of protective resources that a youth expe-
riences may be particularly important for promoting resilience in
the context of multiple adversities. Just as an increasing number of
risk factors exponentially elevates the potential for negative out-
comes, an increasing number of protective resources exponentially
facilitates resilient outcomes in adolescents (Fergusson & Lyns-
key, 1996), and if protective resources are available at different
levels of the social ecology, resilient functioning will be enhanced.
Because resilience is an ongoing dynamic process rather than a
static characteristic of children and adolescents (Luthar et al.,
2000), prevention programs promoting resilience, especially
among youth immersed in adversity, likely need to be long term
and geared toward assisting high-risk youth across successive
periods of development. Short duration and narrowly focused
interventions are not likely to be effective to combat the heavy
weight of multiple risk factors.
Appreciation of equifinality in development with a specific form
of psychopathology evolving from different origins and develop-
mental pathways necessitates a recognition that one prevention
strategy focused on a singular causal model may not be sufficient.
A single pathway may be influenced by interventions formulated
within one conceptual model, but alternative pathways may not be.
Zucker, Ellis, Fitzgerald, Bingham, and Sanfords (1996) delinea-
tion of different subtypes of alcoholism is a case in point. Youth
with AL alcoholism, without a substantial burden of developmen-
tal liabilities, might be more likely to benefit from programs
geared toward greater awareness of the potentially serious negative
consequences of impaired decision making (e.g., driving while
intoxicated, unwanted pregnancies, acquiring HIV). Alternatively,
adolescents at risk for negative affect alcoholism may benefit more
from interventions based on reducing negative attributional biases,
anger management, and alternative ways to experience positive
affect and pleasure. For antisocial alcoholism, the alcohol prob-
lems are embedded within a larger behavioral organization of
antisociality with strong developmental origins in childhood. Pre-
vention of this form of alcoholism focused only on the adolescence
period may not be effective given the extent of long-term, consol-
idated developmental processes that contribute to this outcome.
Prevention efforts would ideally be coordinated with those de-
signed to reduce conduct disorder and implemented early in de-
velopment. As a result of these differences in pathways, devising
reliable methods to differentiate among the subtypes of alcoholism
will be essential so that appropriate interventions may be targeted
at the respective subgroups to maximize effectiveness of the
intervention.
Therapists providing more individualized clinical interventions
for adolescents with disorders similarly need to be cognizant of the
different pathways that may lead to a particular disorder (Toth &
Cicchetti, 1999). Applying the same theoretical approach to all
cases may not be effective because of the inherent differences
among adolescents in the processes in development that eventuate
in a given disturbance. Moreover, because the processes leading to
a disorder may not be the same ones that maintain a disorder (cf.
Courchesne, Townsend, & Chase, 1995; Post, 1992), different
therapeutic approaches or emphases may be needed depending on
where one is trying to intervene in the course of the disorder. For
example, treatment for an adolescent with an initial episode of
depression may need to differ from that provided to an adolescent
with onset during childhood. Treating adolescents also requires
specific attention to the cognitive and emotional capacities they
have to make use of an intervention (Holmbeck et al., 2000; Shirk,
1988; Toth & Cicchetti, 1999). Not all adolescents reason at the
same level, and within individuals there is likely to be inconsis-
tency in the sophistication with which they reason across different
content domains (Keating, 1990). Attention to the personal mean-
ings that adolescents ascribe to their behaviors also is critical.
Finally, given that adolescents with disorders are likely to struggle
with resolving the stage-salient task of adolescence, optimal bal-
ance between parental authority and adolescent autonomy strivings
often will require interventions to assist the whole family in
negotiating the challenges of this period of development.
Conclusion
In summary, we have sought to frame this special section on
Adolescent Clinical Psychology: Developmental Psychopathol-
ogy and Treatment by providing an overview of concepts and
aspects of the discipline relevant to adolescent risk and psychopa-
thology. It is not feasible in an article of this length to compre-
hensively address all facets of developmental psychopathology,
and we therefore refer the interested reader to other sources for
elaboration (e.g., Cicchetti & Cohen, 1995a, 1995b; and the 24
special issues of the journal Development and Psychopathology).
We do not profess to have addressed all issues of import to
adolescent development, nor all investigations framed within a
developmental psychopathology perspective that are meaningful to
inquiries in this area. Rather, it is our hope that the conceptual-
ization proffered herein will impel experts in adolescent research
and treatment to broaden their thinking to incorporate relevant
components of this framework into their ongoing work.
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Received September 18, 2000
Revision received April 7, 2001
Accepted April 18, 2001