PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN INFANCY

The first three years of life present unique challenges to the study o f psychopathology. We highlight four of the issues in a selective revi ew of the developmental psychopathology of early childhood, including lack of specificity of risk and outcome variables, measurement difficu lties, rapid developmental changes and the centrality of the relations hip context in early childhood. We also highlight issues relevant to c onceptualizations of disorders of infancy, emphasizing especially the need for efforts to validate clinical disorders. We consider two major domains of infant development that we believe are especially relevant to a discussion of psychopathology, namely, regulation of emotion and infant-caregiver attachment. Discussions of these two domains of infa nt development and their psychopathological extremes allow us to consi der conceptualizations of psychopathology from the dual perspectives o f developmental psychopathology and clinical disorders. We conclude by suggesting a number of strategies to build upon previous research.