Developmental Psychopathology: Pathways to the Future

This article highlights the defining principles, progress and future directions in developmental psychopathology in relation to this special section. Six fundamental principles of developmental psychopathology are identified and the pervasive impact of this integrative framework on research, theory, and practice in behavioral health fields over the past three decades is described. This special section reflects the increasing influence of developmental systems theory, the growing focus on "change", intensifying interest in translational research, and the increasingly complex and differentiated nature of research on pathways toward and away from psychopathology. A new era in developmental psychopathology is dawning, with exciting frontiers in brain development and plasticity, gene-environment interaction, resilience and recovery, multilevel dynamics, interdisciplinary research and training, and methodologies for assessing and analyzing change over time within and across individual systems and their contexts. (Contains 2 tables.)