Dante Cicchetti, PhD - US grants

The proposed study will extend previous work on family interaction completed by the Principal Investigator to the study of maltreating families. Child maltreatment exacts enormous human and financial costs each year. Maltreated children have been shown to exhibit deficits in cognitive functioning, problems with peer interaction, poor school performance, and higher rates of emotional problems than non-maltreated controls. Despite contributions by family systems theory to the study of normal child development, the study of child maltreatment has not benefitted from a similar application of family systems theory and methods. Fifty maltreating families identified through Social Service reports (25 abusive, 25 neglectful) and 50 control families matched on SES, ethnicity, and family composition will be recruited. For all maltreating families the affected child will be between 3-5 years of age. Families with children between 3-5 years will be selected because children this age are developmentally ready to make increasing demands for autonomous functioning, presenting special challenges to maltreating families. All families will be videotaped in their homes completing two interaction tasks- a family interaction task and a parent-child teaching task. In the family interaction task, caregiver(s) and children will be asked to work together taking turns adding blocks to build a single house. In the parent-child teaching task, parents will be asked to help their child complete puzzles too difficult for the child only if the child needs help. Coding of these videotaped interactions will be accomplished using a revision of an existing global coding system for family interaction developed by the Principal Investigator. Codes will focus on levels of family organization/disorganization, the negotiation of conflict, and the fostering of autonomous behaviors by .parents for children. Identified differences between maltreating and control families will inform the theoretical understanding of child maltreatment, as well as suggesting intervention strategies at the family level to address extreme parental dysfunction. Secondary analyses will also explore difference within the maltreating group between abusive and neglectful families. The proposed study will be conducted through Mt. Hope Family Center, a center for research, training, and intervention in developmental psychopathology with a rich history of studying child maltreatment.

the intervention group and the nondepressed control group. By following this sample of children until they reach the age of five, we also will be able to begin to assess the efficacy of the preventive intervention on long-term adjustment and to determine the adaptation of a population of children with mood-disordered mothers in the absence of intervention.

This investigation will evaluate the long term efficacy of an attachment- theory based preventive intervention, Toddler-Parent Psychotherapy (TPP), for reducing later child maladaptation and psychopathology among children whose mothers experienced major depressive disorder early in their children's lives. In the previous study, mothers and their toddlers were assessed longitudinally from baseline in toddlerhood (mean age 19.9 months) through age five years. In the current study, reassessments will occur when children are nine years old. Participants will include 165 mothers and their children; 101 depressed mothers and their children had been randomized at baseline to the intervention group (DI) (n=46) or nonintervention (DC) (n=55) group; nondepressed mothers (NC) (n=64) and their children served as normative comparisons. Measurements, conceptualized from an organizational perspective on development and an ecological-transactional model of development in children of depressed mothers, include assessments of the microsystem (current maternal psychopathology, parenting, mother-child relationship quality, and family emotional environment), current child ontogenic development on prior (attachment and self) and current (adaptation to school, peer relations) stage-salient issues, and child psychopathology. The research will be informative regarding the capacity of the early preventive intervention to reduce risk for maladaptation and psychopathology among offspring of depressed mothers into the school-age years. This investigation also will increase understanding of the developmental contributors to psychopathological outcomes in offspring of depressed mothers.

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): This investigation will evaluate the relative effectiveness of two theoretically-informed approaches in preventing the adverse sequelae of maltreatment in infants. Research participants will include 150 infants who have been maltreated by their biological caregiver during their first year of life and who continue to reside with the maternal caregiver, and 50 nonmaltreated demographically matched comparison infants and their mothers (NC). An ecological-transactional and organizational perspective on development serves to guide the intervention and evaluation models. Maltreated infants and their mothers will be randomly assigned to 1 of 3 types of intervention: 1) Services routinely available in the community when a family is reported for child maltreatment (CS); 2) CS involvement plus weekly Psychoeducational Home Visitation (PHV); 3) CS involvement plus weekly Infant-Parent Psychotherapy (IPP). Intervention will be provided until the infant's second birthday. All mother-infant dyads will participate in baseline assessments at the infant's age of 12 months. Subsequent assessments will occur at 18, 24, 36 an 48 months of age. Assessments will measure three major areas: 1) ecological-family variables; 2) maternal functioning and parenting; and 3) child functioning and stage-salient issues. Child Protective Services records will be monitored annually across all groups to determine whether any reports of maltreatment have been filed. Because all mother-child dyads will be evaluated at the end of the intervention (24 month assessment), as well as for two additional years, the immediate as well as enduring effects of the intervention will be assessed. By following these mother-child dyads into the preschool years, the relative effectiveness of two theoretically-informed approaches to preventing child maladjustment, improving parenting, and reducing future maltreatment will be evaluated.

DESCRIPTION (adapted from Investigator's abstract): The proposed investigation will examine the links between child maltreatment and adolescent drug use and abuse. This investigation builds upon a prior study of the sequelae of child maltreatment during the early school-age years, which included two waves of data collection (participants were 6-8 and 9-11). In the proposed research, 350 children (234 maltreated and 116 non-maltreated) will continue to be followed prospectively and assessed at two time periods (when participants are 13-15 and 15-17). Data will be collected from the adolescents and mothers/current guardians. Based on research linking risk and protective factors to problem adolescent drug use and guided by developmental theory, the proposed investigation will assess an extensive array of risk and protective factors for drug abuse, as well as determine the current developmental organization of the adolescents. Psychopathology and problem adolescent behaviors also will be assessed.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): NIDA has had a long-standing mission to determine the impact of chronic stress on substance use, abuse, and addiction. This application addresses this important objective in multiple, innovative ways. In particular, we focus on late adolescents with histories of experiencing child maltreatment, a severe and chronic stressor contributing to high risk for maladaptation, psychopathology, and substance use and abuse across the life course. Although numerous studies have identified a linkage between child maltreatment and substance use in adolescence and adulthood, the developmental mechanisms through which the experience of the chronic stress of child maltreatment results in substance use and abuse have received only minimal attention. Child maltreatment is known to impair both biological and psychological systems, and it is essential to investigate how these developmental consequences of child abuse and neglect contribute to the emergence of substance abuse outcomes. In the present application, we're seeking a renewal of our previous investigation of a diverse cohort of preadolescent maltreated and nonmaltreated children studied during a period when there is minimal substance use normatively. We propose to follow-up this sample of children in late adolescence/emerging adulthood, a period when substance abuse normatively escalates. We will capitalize on the solid developmental foundation acquired in the original study, which obtained an extensive assessment of multilevel influences (socio- emotional, interpersonal, family relational, social contextual, personality, psychopathology, attentional, neurocognitive, and neuroendocrine) in maltreated and nonmaltreated children. The multilevel assessment of diverse domains will be continued in the present application. We also will include genetic sampling in order to investigate the potential of protective vs. risk promoting influences of genetic variants on late adolescent substance abuse outcomes and differential effects dependent on exposure to child maltreatment. We will conduct diverse multilevel assessments with the late adolescents, as well as obtain perspectives on the late adolescent's functioning from caregivers and best friends. Assessing the effects of chronic stress on stress-sensitive systems at earlier, more distal periods of development, as well as the capacity to integrate both distal and proximal adaptations to chronic stress in late adolescence has the potential to greatly expand understanding of the multilevel impact of chronic stress on drug abuse. This research will have important implications for public health. In addition to advancing knowledge regarding the multilevel developmental roots of substance use and abuse, the research will provide important direction for prevention and intervention strategies. Given that multiple pathways from child maltreatment to substance abuse are likely to be identified, insights into different intervention targets will be elucidated.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The field of developmental psychopathology has been characterized by a focus on the bi-directional relations between normal and atypical development, and, as such, lends itself to providing a framework for the translation of research on normal populations toward understanding atypical and disordered populations. As such, a developmental psychopathology perspective serves as a powerful impetus for translating work on memory into the arena of trauma, specifically, into enhancing our understanding of the possible effects of child maltreatment on processes of memory. In this translational research application, we plan to ascertain whether experiences of child maltreatment affect the operation of memory in maltreated children. Toward this goal, we draw from the normative literature on memory in children and systematically apply this knowledge to issues relevant to maltreatment and memory. 1,440 children between 5 and 10 years of age will participate in a series of six studies addressing basic memory processes, information suppression, suggestibility, and false memories. 720 children will have been reported to the local Department of Human and Health Services (DHHS) for concerns related to child maltreatment and 360 non-maltreated children will be demographically comparable to the maltreated children with respect to gender, socio-economic status, racelethnicity, and household composition. Maltreated children will be equally divided among those with histories of Neglect (referred to as the Omission Group) and those with histories of Physical and/or Sexual Abuse (referred to as the Commission Group). A second comparison group of 360 middle socio-economic status children will be recruited to allow for comparisons with the basic memory literature. [unreadable] [unreadable] The research plan is guided by the following specific aims: 1) to ascertain whether basic memory processes operate the same or differently in children with histories of maltreatment; 2) to determine whether maltreated children are more or less prone to information suppression than are children without histories of maltreatment; 3) to assess whether maltreated children are more or less susceptible to suggestibility and to false memories than are non-maltreated children; 4) to examine whether higher levels of psychopathology interfere with maltreated children's memory processes and increase their susceptibility to suggestion and false memories; 5) to translate the findings of these investigations to the social policy arena. The overarching goal of this program of research will be to export these findings into the social policy arena, as well as to inform the provision of interventions of maltreated populations. Thus, the application possesses significant implications for society regarding planning for the needs of children who have been physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected. [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This longitudinal investigation will evaluate the relative efficacy of two theoretically-informed approaches to preventing maladaptation, a depressotypic developmental organization, and emergent psychopathology in young offspring of low-income depressed mothers. Research participants will include 260 mothers and their infants; 195 mothers will have a current major depressive disorder and 65 demographically comparable mothers will have no lifetime history of mental disorder. All families will be at or below the federal poverty level. Depressed mothers and their infants will be randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment conditions: 1) Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for 4 months followed by an attention control for 8 months; 2)IPT for 4 months followed by Infant-Parent Psychotherapy (IPP) for 8 months; and 3) Enhanced Community Standard (ECS) treatment for depression, involving facilitated referrals for standard interventions in the community. Baseline assessments will be conducted when infants are 12 months old, with subsequent re-assessments when infants are 14, 16, 24, 36, and 48 months of age. Assessments will measure three major areas: 1) Maternal depressive symptomatology and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) diagnosis, social role functioning, support, and home contextual features; 2) the quality of the mother-child relationship and affective features of parenting; and 3) child functioning, stage-salient issues, and stress-reactivity. Longitudinal comparisons of the two active preventive intervention groups (IPT and IPT/IPP) with the ECS and nondisordered groups will be used to determine: 1) whether IPT and IPT/IPP are efficacious in reducing maternal depressive symptomatology and MDD relapse through the child's age of four; 2) whether treatment targeted on maternal depression is sufficient to alter the developmental course in offspring; and 3) whether intervention directly focused on the mother-child relationship also is necessary to promote positive outcomes and reduce risk for maladaptation and psychopathology in young offspring of depressed mothers.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Child abuse, a form of violence inflicted on children, is a complex, insidious problem that, although occurring more frequently in families residing in poverty, cuts across all sectors of society. The human costs of child abuse are a litany of biological and psychological tragedies that may last a lifetime. The economic costs for American society are astronomical, with billions of dollars spent in psychiatric, social services, educational, and justice system costs, as well as lessened productivity for a generation of abused children. Discovering the processes underlying the development of psychopathology and resilience among these traumatized children offers great promise for translating these findings to inform prevention, intervention, and social policy initiatives. Child abuse is a pathogenic relational experience that represents one of the most adverse and stressful challenges confronting children. Before effective treatments can be developed, a clear understanding of the mechanisms and processes that initiate and maintain the developmental pathways to maladaptation and mental disorder in abused children is needed. The discovery of processes that contribute to abused children averting mental disorder can be very informative in guiding translational research and treatment development. Because research on the causes and consequences of child abuse has largely focused on a single level of analysis, the present application addresses this significant gap in the literature through implementing a multiple levels of analysis perspective. In the context of a research day camp, two cohorts of 8- to 10-year-old abused and nonmaltreated children (N = 500) will be assessed in two consecutive summers over four years. The interrelations among genetic, neuroendocrine, neurophysiological, neurocognitive, self-system, inter- personal, and emotion regulation domains will be examined in order to elucidate an integrative understanding of trauma-related psychopathology in abused children. The measurement battery is diverse and is comprised of interviews, observations, experimental paradigms, child and adult reports, and molecular genetic, neurophysiological, neuroendocrine and neurocognitive assessments of biological and behavioral functioning. This multi-level, multi-measure, multi-informant approach will enable researchers to comprehend the complexity of the full range of adaptation and maladaptation in abused children. The proposed research, through attention to expected individual differences among abused children, will emphasize varied patterns of adaptation to traumatic experiences and associated biological and psychological processes contributing to these differentiated patterns. The findings will augment the knowledge base regarding the sequelae of child abuse and the etiology of trauma-based psychopathology, and the knowledge gained will inform prevention and intervention initiatives to divert abused children from the development of trauma-related psychopathology and contribute toward reducing the burden of mental illness in traumatized children. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Child abuse, including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, exerts a pernicious toll on the biological and psychological development of children, rendering them likely to be more vulnerable to being subjected to and traumatized by community violence and to be at heightened risk for the emergence of mental disorders across the life course. The findings obtained in the shot-term longitudinal investigation of abused and nonmaltreated children describe in this application will enhance understanding of the biological and psychological pathways to psychopathology and resilience in abused children. Importantly, they also will guide translational research through informing preventive and intervention initiatives aimed at diverting abused children from psychopathology and reducing the burden of mental illness in these traumatized children.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the proposed program is to train predoctoral and postdoctoral students in research in developmental psychology. The application is to continue a research training program that has had continuous NIMH support since 1959. The training site, the Institute of Child Development (founded in 1925), holds a unique position as an internationally known, premier center of research in developmental science. The community of scholars at the Institute engages in substantive and significant basic research on the development of biological, sensory, perceptual, cognitive, social, and emotional processes. Simultaneously, the Institute faculty and students seek to "give away" knowledge of human development;and to engage in collaborative work across several disciplines, including the interface between brain and behavior, and between individuals and the contextual systems in which their development is embedded, such as family, peers, schools, community, and cultural systems. The training program would provide support for four predoctoral scholars per year, at least one of whom would be engaged in interdisciplinary research in the critical fields of developmental psychopathology or developmental neuroscience;appointments are for two years. Predoctoral trainees entering the program will have completed baccalaureate studies in psychology or a related field and occasionally will have had some (typically 2 yrs) graduate training. Predoctoral trainees complete a full major and minor program, including coursework, research and teaching apprenticeships, and examinations. The training program also would provide support for two postdoctoral trainees per year;appointments are for two years. Postdoctoral trainees would be recruited from two categories of individuals: those whose doctoral studies were not in developmental psychology, but who desire research training in developmental science;and those whose training was in development science, but who seek expanded interdisciplinary training in developmental psychopathology or developmental neuroscience. The primary engagement of postdoctoral trainees is research. The training site is located on the main campus of the University of Minnesota. It includes state-of-the-art computer, laboratory, and library facilities, as well as offices for staff, students, and trainees. The faculty includes 16 professors, whose work ranges across the entire discipline.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Research has consistently demonstrated that child maltreatment places children at heightened risk for the emergence of psychopathology, including major depressive disorders (MDD; Cicchetti & Valentino, 2006; Thompson, 2005; Widom et al., 2007). Adolescents with maltreatment histories have been found to be three times more likely to become depressed or suicidal than adolescents without histories of maltreatment (Brown et al., 1999). Because adolescence represents a peak time for the emergence of depressive disorders, as well as a developmental period during which rates of depression for girls begin to exceed those of boys, the provision of preventive intervention for adolescent girls with elevated depressive symptoms is particularly important. Moreover, because studies examining processes underlying depression have begun to elucidate differential pathways based on the presence of maltreatment (Heim et al., 2008), the evaluation of a preventive intervention for subsyndromal depressed adolescent girls with or without histories of maltreatment addresses a critical gap in the prevention literature. As increased knowledge on the biological consequences of child abuse and neglect has emerged (Watts-English et al., 2006), it is increasingly important to incorporate a multiple- levels-of-analysis perspective into the design and evaluation of preventive interventions. The proposed research seeks to extend knowledge on an efficacious preventive intervention for depression in adolescent girls with and without histories of maltreatment. The investigation will utilize a developmental psychopathology framework with 350 low-income ethnically and culturally diverse adolescent girls to evaluate the efficacy of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (IPT-A) for preventing depression. 140 of these adolescents with depressive symptoms will have histories of child maltreatment and 140 will be demographically comparable but without maltreatment history. Within each group, half will be randomly assigned to IPT-A and half to enhanced care with comparable duration. An additional group of 70 nonmaltreated nonsymptomatic girls will serve as a comparison for to determining how psychological and neurobiological functioning in the depressive groups may approximate that seen in a nonsymptomatic group of adolescents. The investigation will apply a multiple- levels-of-analysis approach to evaluate IPT-A efficacy in decreasing depressive symptoms and preventing MDD in maltreated and nonmaltreated adolescent girls through examining genetic, neuroendocrine, cognitive, and interpersonal domains at baseline, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and at one-year follow-ups. Group differences in the network of causative processes in depression for maltreated and nonmaltreated adolescents will be examined in relation to outcomes. Additionally, potential mechanisms involved in the intervention process will be examined, including changes in neuroendocrine regulation, cognitive processes, and interpersonal relations. Additionally, analyses will determine whether genetic differences moderate the efficacy of IPT-A in reducing depressive symptomatology in maltreated and in nonmaltreated girls.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Coping with peer adversity is a common occurrence in childhood that markedly increases the risk for psychopathology and adjustment problems. However, little is known about the nature, precursors, correlates, and developmental sequelae of individual differences in children's behavioral patterns of responding to peer difficulties. In addressing this knowledge gap, this proposal is designed to apply the ethological reformulation of Emotional Security Theory (EST-R; Davies & Sturge-Apple, 2007) to advance the study of children's social behavior within agonic peer relationships in relation to the goal of maintaining sense of security in peer contexts. As a first test of the utility of the EST-R for the study of per dynamics, this application seeks to address the following specific aims: (1) identify the nature and developmental course (i.e., stability, change) of individual differences in children's adoption of five security profiles of defending against peer threat, (2) explicate interrelationships betwee the security profiles and the proximal characteristics of the peer ecology, and (4) examine hypothesized specificity in the mental health and social adjustment sequelae of the security profiles over the course of one year. To address these objectives, this application proposes to utilize a rich existing data set that followed a high risk sample of over 238 6- to 11-year-old children through two summer camps spaced one year apart. As a supplement to the project, a novel measurement approach will be implemented to rigorously examine children's patterns of behavioral responding to threatening peer events in naturalistic peer settings using an innovative ethologically-based coding scheme. Within the context of careful observations and a broader multi-method, multi-informant design, the sophisticated multi-level structural equation modeling and pattern-based analyses are designed to offer rigorous tests of the novel, theoretically guided hypotheses. Consequently, the study has the potential to significantly advance knowledge on the developmental nature, precursors, and sequelae of discordant peer relationships with direct implications for improving targeted identification of children at risk an guiding studies that identify distinct causal processes and target mechanisms for change in intervention initiatives. . PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In light of the prevalence of stressful peer events and its profound psychological and economic costs to children and society, understanding how children adapt to threatening peer interactions is an important public health priority. Accordingly, the overarching objective of this project is to (a) distinguish between patterns of children's behavioral responses to stressful peer events, (2) explicate the proximal characteristics of the peer ecology that are associated with different profiles of reactivity, and (c) chart the implications of these responses to stressful peer events for children's mental health. By addressing these questions, this application will help provide knowledge necessary to inform clinical and policy initiatives designed to improve the welfare of children.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the proposed program is to train the next generation of scholars in developmental psychopathology who will conduct research addressing the first three of NIMH's strategic objectives from a developmental perspective. The proposal requests continuation of a training program at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota continuously supported by the National Institute of Mental Health since 1959. The award-winning faculty on the training grant reflect various sub-disciplines of developmental science, including child clinical psychology, developmental behavioral neuroscience/developmental psychobiology, socioemotional development, cognitive development, pediatrics, and prevention/intervention science. The proposal seeks support for 4 predoctoral and 2 postdoctoral trainees for 2-year terms. In any given year, the predoctoral trainees represent approximately 10% of all Ph.D. students in the Institute of Child Development; thus being placed on the training grant is highly competitive. Students enter the training grant as 3rd or 4th year Ph.D. students so that we can be more confident of their talent and of their commitment to research areas pertinent to NIMH's strategic goals. Postdoctoral trainees are selected based on evidence of research potential, strong recommendations, and fit with the program. Predoctoral trainees complete one of two Ph.D. tracks, the Developmental Science track or the Developmental Psychopathology Clinical Science track; the latter involves a one-year clinical internship. All predoctoral trainees receive training in developmental psychopathology, grant writing, professional development, ethics in research, statistics, and cognitive and social development as part of the larger Ph.D. program. Coursework is mostly completed by the end of the 2nd year, and thus those students on the training grant (3rd-5th year students) can devote most of their time to research. Postdoctoral students complete the grant writing course and, in consultation with their faculty mentor and the training grant director any areas of developmental science that are critical to their research program and in which they lacked sufficient prior training.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Child maltreatment is a complex, insidious problem that exerts an astronomical toll on individuals, families, and society. Advancing knowledge regarding the early developmental processes that contribute to adverse outcomes in maltreated children is thus of high public health significance. The development of trust in young children is an expanding area of inquiry. In addition to further investigation of normative processes in trust competencies, limited research has been conducted to elucidate contributors to individual differences in trust development. Significantly, no research has investigated trust in maltreated children, despite the likelihood of trust capacities being jeopardized in these youngsters. Accordingly, research on emerging trust in maltreated children would address a critical barrier to understanding important, unstudied impairments in early social development that have crucial implications for subsequent interpersonal and relationship functioning in maltreated individuals, and consequent mental health liabilities. In the present application, we propose to recruit 300 36- to 42-month-old children from low income families; 150 children will have a history of child maltreatment and 150 will have no maltreatment history. The children and their mothers will participate in four laboratory sessions to assess components of epistemic trust, self- reliance vs. deference in trust decision-making, and source memory. The three epistemic trust tasks vary in terms of the degree of cognitive vs. socio-affective sources of information. Mother-child attachment security, theory of mind/false belief understanding, and inhibitory control also will be assessed. Additionally, separate Event Related Potential assessments will be conducted with stimuli yoked to that used in the three epistemic trust assessments. Accordingly, the measurements to be obtained constitute a multilevel assessment of diverse domains that are implicated in contributing to individual differences in the development of children's early trust capacities. Moreover, investigation of these domains holds great promise for identifying mechanisms that may contribute to difficulties that young maltreated children are likely to exhibit in the development of trust. Assessing the consequences of maltreatment occurring in the first three years of life on children's ability to develop trust in others has important implications for their social, interpersonal, and affective development, as well as subsequent mental health. The research also will greatly expand the understanding of normative trust development. This research will have important implications for public health. In addition to advancing knowledge regarding the multilevel developmental roots of early difficulties in trust development, the research will provide valuable direction for early prevention and intervention strategies. Given the multiple mechanisms that are likely to be identified in contributing to early, compromised trust development, insights into different intervention targets will be elucidated.

Project Summary/Abstract The purpose of the proposed program is to train the next generation of scholars in developmental psychopathology who will conduct multiple levels of analysis research addressing the first three of NIMH's strategic objectives from a developmental perspective. The proposal requests continuation of a training program at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, continuously supported by the National Institute of Mental Health since 1959. The award-winning faculty on the training grant reflect various sub- disciplines of developmental science, including child clinical psychology, developmental behavioral neuroscience/developmental psychobiology, stress neurobiology, socioemotional development, cognitive development, pediatrics, and prevention/intervention science. External training faculty from other departments across the University of Minnesota (e.g., Family Social Science, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Psychology - see Table 2 in application) also will serve as co-mentors of the pre- and ?post doctoral trainees. This allows our trainees to take advantage of the full richness of research in developmental psychopathology available at the University of Minnesota. The proposal seeks support for 4 predoctoral and 2 postdoctoral trainees for 2-year terms. In any given year, the predoctoral trainees represent approximately 10% of all Ph.D. students in the Institute of Child Development; thus, being placed on the training grant is highly competitive. Students enter the training grant as 2nd, 3rd or 4th year Ph.D. students (preferentially 3rd or 4th year) so that we can be more confident of their talent and of their commitment to research areas pertinent to NIMH's strategic goals. Postdoctoral trainees are selected based on evidence of research potential, strong recommendations, and fit with the program. Predoctoral trainees complete one of two Ph.D. tracks, the Developmental Science track or the Developmental Psychopathology Clinical Science track; the latter involves a one-year clinical internship. All predoctoral trainees receive training in developmental psychopathology, grant writing, professional development, ethics in research, statistics, and cognitive and social development as part of the larger Ph.D. program. Coursework is mostly completed by the end of the 2nd year, and thus those students funded by this training grant can devote most of their time to research. Postdoctoral students complete the grant writing course and, in consultation with their faculty mentor and the training grant director, any areas of developmental science that are critical to their research program and in which they lacked sufficient prior training. Consistent with the fourth NIMH strategic objective, research conducted will be innovative and have great public health significance.

ABSTRACT - OVERALL CORE Each year millions of young children and adolescents in the U.S. are reported to Child Protective agencies for maltreatment (neglect, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse), and experience additional forms of trauma such as exposure to domestic abuse, community violence, life-threatening illness or injury, or sudden loss. A diverse multidisciplinary team of investigators from the Universities of Rochester and Minnesota will partner with the NICHD to create the TRANSFORM Center (Translational Research that Adapts New Science FOR Maltreatment Prevention) to prevent child maltreatment and to address its sequelae. The unique combined capacity of this multi-investigator Center, i.e., the expertise, infrastructure support, human/fiscal resources, and research/intervention strategies would not be feasible for a single investigator working alone in one laboratory. Building on current state-of-the-science research methodologies and clinical practices that address the personal and societal burden associated with child abuse and neglect, TRANSFORM will leverage theoretically-grounded evidence-based research and preventive interventions to optimize outcomes in children. In doing so, the Center will apply the most advanced concepts and methods derived from child maltreatment research, and leverage numerous longstanding relationships within the child welfare community to make its impact. TRANSFORM will use a multidisciplinary translational approach embedded in a developmental psychopathology framework that builds upon discoveries in genetics, neuroscience, prevention and intervention science, child welfare, and court systems to develop an innovative national resource for diverse disciplines and professional arenas. To achieve its objectives, TRANSFORM will utilize two Research Projects and two mutually-informative and integrated Cores: a Community Engagement Core, and an Administrative Core. This `team science' model brings together professionals with different backgrounds including basic and applied scientists who provide the theoretical grounding for project hypotheses, program developers who are the architects of evidence-based programs, research methodologists who advise on the appropriate experimental designs for testing the models, including the constructs and measures that will map onto the mediators and moderators, the analytical methods for evaluating results, attorneys who can translate results into legal and judicial systems, and child-serving professionals and governmental stakeholders who will participate in dissemination activities. TRANSFORM will be led by Drs. Sheree Toth and Dante Cicchetti, internationally-recognized leaders in the field of child maltreatment, whose collaborative work spans almost four decades and provides a solid foundation for conducting groundbreaking longitudinal and prevention research that will contribute to widespread engagement across multiple child-serving systems.