Grants per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
As a developmental/clinical psychologist, Dr. Wakschlag's scientific focus is on how early development (from the prenatal-preschool period) shapes mental health pathways. One major line of inquiry is characterizing the phenotype of emergent mental health problems in early childhood. She and her collaborators have generated the first “developmentally-sensitive toolkit” specifically designed to enhance early identification of mental health problems, via by empirically-based differentiation of the normative misbehavior of early childhood from the onset of disruptive behavior at preschool age. Currently, these tools are being used to pinpoint corollary neurodevelopmental atypicalities, with work underway to ready the tools for clinical use. Most recently, this work has focused on the neurodevelopment of irritability as a shared substrate of common childhood-onset mental disorders. The second major focus of her research is elucidating prenatal origins of disease pathways. In particular, this work focuses on causal modeling of prenatal smoking “effects” on disruptive behavior. This includes the development of novel methods for multi-level characterization of adverse prenatal environments, investigating prenatal environment x gene interactions, and pinpointing the developmental sequence of exposure-related neurobehavioral vulnerabilities from infancy-adolescence. Examination of prenatal smoking effects “within psychosocial context,” has led her to a burgeoning emphasis on the role of early life stress in these pathways. Increasingly her work in this area aims to discover the patterns of brain:behavior atypicality associated with adverse prenatal exposures. The long term goal of these efforts is to serve as an impetus for moving the “dial” of mental health prevention much earlier in the disease sequence, by providing well characterized neurodevelopmental phenotypes of disease susceptibility to serve as core prevention targets.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
PhD, The University of Chicago
… → 1992
Social Work, MA, The University of Chicago
… → 1983
Psychology, BA, Barnard College
… → 1980
Research interests keywords
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Developmental Alterations
- Developmental Methods
- Developmental Origins of Disease
- Developmental Psychopathology
- Disruptive/Antisocial Behavior
- Gene-Environment Interactions
- Prenatal Environment and Developmental Outcomes
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Make Ready the NIH Baby Toolbox for End Users:
Gershon, R., Blackwell, C. K., Dworak, E. M., Kaat, A. J., LaForte, E. M., Lai, J., Mansolf, M. A., Novack, M. A., Nowinski, C. J., Pila, S., Sivan, A. B., Wakschlag, L. S., Waxman, S. R. & Yao, L.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
9/28/23 → 9/27/24
Project: Research project
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The ECHO Measurement Core: A Framework and Resourc
Cella, D., Gershon, R., Blackwell, C. K., Funk, W. E., Ho, E. H., Hook, J. N., LaForte, E. M., Lai, J., Mansolf, M. A., McDade, T., Sherlock, P. R., Sivan, A. B., Tang, X., Wakschlag, L. S. & Yao, L.
Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health
9/1/23 → 5/31/30
Project: Research project
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NIH Infant and Toddler Toolbox Task Order 4
Gershon, R., Blackwell, C. K., Dworak, E. M., Kaat, A. J., Kallen, M. A., LaForte, E. M., Novack, M. A., Nowinski, C. J., Pila, S., Sivan, A. B., Wakschlag, L. S. & Waxman, S. R.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
9/28/22 → 3/27/24
Project: Research project
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The Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium Administrative Core
University of California, San Diego, National Institute on Drug Abuse
10/1/21 → 6/30/24
Project: Research project
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9/24- Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium
Norton, E. S., Norton, E. S., Wakschlag, L. S., Wakschlag, L. S., Badreldin, N., Badreldin, N., Dufford, A. J., Dufford, A. J., Krogh-Jespersen, S., Krogh-Jespersen, S., Lewis-Thames, M. W., Lewis-Thames, M. W., Massey, S., Massey, S., Miller, E. S., Miller, E. S., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y., Edwards, R. C. & Edwards, R. C.
National Institute on Drug Abuse
9/30/21 → 6/30/26
Project: Research project
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Advancing earlier transdiagnostic identification of mental health risk: A pragmatic approach at the transition to toddlerhood
Wiggins, J. L., Ureña Rosario, A., Zhang, Y., MacNeill, L., Yu, Q., Norton, E., Smith, J. D. & Wakschlag, L. S., 2023, (Accepted/In press) In: International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access7 Scopus citations -
A Proposed Pediatric Clinical Cardiovascular Health Reference Standard
Petito, L. C., McCabe, M. E., Pool, L. R., Krefman, A. E., Perak, A. M., Marino, B. S., Juonala, M., Kähönen, M., Lehtimäki, T., Bazzano, L. A., Liu, L., Pahkala, K., Laitinen, T. T., Raitakari, O. T., Gooding, H. C., Daniels, S. R., Skinner, A. C., Greenland, P., Davis, M. M., Wakschlag, L. S., & 5 others , 2023, (Accepted/In press) In: American Journal of Preventive Medicine.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Cardiovascular health trajectories from age 2–12: a pediatric electronic health record study
Pool, L. R., Petito, L. C., Yang, X., Krefman, A. E., Perak, A. M., Davis, M. M., Greenland, P., Rosenman, M., Zmora, R., Wang, Y., Hou, L., Marino, B. S., Van Horn, L., Wakschlag, L. S., Labarthe, D., Lloyd-Jones, D. M. & Allen, N. B., Jul 2023, In: Annals of Epidemiology. 83, p. 40-46.e4Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1 Scopus citations -
Developmental Trajectories of Irritability across the Transition to Toddlerhood: Associations with Effortful Control and Psychopathology
Zhang, Y., MacNeill, L. A., Edwards, R. C., Burns, J. L., Zola, A. R., Poleon, R. B., Nili, A. N., Giase, G. M., Ahrenholtz, R. M., Wiggins, J. L., Norton, E. S. & Wakschlag, L. S., 2023, (Accepted/In press) In: Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
4 Scopus citations -
Editorial Statement About JCCAP’s 2023 Special Issue on Informant Discrepancies in Youth Mental Health Assessments: Observations, Guidelines, and Future Directions Grounded in 60 Years of Research
De Los Reyes, A., Epkins, C. C., Asmundson, G. J. G., Augenstein, T. M., Becker, K. D., Becker, S. P., Bonadio, F. T., Borelli, J. L., Boyd, R. C., Bradshaw, C. P., Burns, G. L., Casale, G., Causadias, J. M., Cha, C. B., Chorpita, B. F., Cohen, J. R., Comer, J. S., Crowell, S. E., Dirks, M. A., Drabick, D. A. G., & 50 others , 2023, In: Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. 52, 1, p. 147-158 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › peer-review
Open Access7 Scopus citations
Datasets
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Testing the effects of a prenatal depression preventive intervention on parenting and young children’s self-regulation and functioning (EPIC): protocol for a longitudinal observational study
Diebold, A. (Creator), Johnson, J. K. (Creator), Brennan, M. (Creator), Ciolino, J. D. (Creator), Petitclerc, A. (Creator), Wakschlag, L. S. (Creator), Garfield, C. (Creator), Yeh, C. (Creator), Lovejoy, A. (Creator), Zakieh, D. (Creator) & Tandon, D. (Creator), figshare, 2021
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5507052.v1, https://springernature.figshare.com/collections/Testing_the_effects_of_a_prenatal_depression_preventive_intervention_on_parenting_and_young_children_s_self-regulation_and_functioning_EPIC_protocol_for_a_longitudinal_observational_study/5507052/1
Dataset