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, 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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The Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium Administrative Core
Wakschlag, L. S. (PD/PI)
University of California, San Diego, National Institute on Drug Abuse
12/1/24 → 6/30/25
Project: Research project
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The Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium Administrative Core
Edwards, R. C. (PD/PI) & Wakschlag, L. S. (PD/PI)
University of California, San Diego, National Institute on Drug Abuse
12/1/24 → 6/30/25
Project: Research project
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Admin Core
Wakschlag, L. S. (PD/PI)
National Institute of Mental Health
9/12/24 → 6/30/29
Project: Research project
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RP2 (SPARK)
Schleider, J. L. (PD/PI), Wakschlag, L. S. (Co-Investigator) & Weisleder, A. (Co-Investigator)
National Institute of Mental Health
9/12/24 → 6/30/29
Project: Research project
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Signature Project (Peds-BRITE)
Wakschlag, L. S. (PD/PI) & Allen, N. B. (Co-Investigator)
National Institute of Mental Health
9/12/24 → 6/30/29
Project: Research project
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Characterizing Olfactory Brain Responses in Young Infants
Shanahan, L. K., Mithal, L. B., Messina, M., Office, E., Wakschlag, L., Seed, P. & Kahnt, T., Mar 12 2025, In: Journal of Neuroscience. 45, 11, e1780242025.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Developmental shifts in irritable behaviors from preschool to school age: Longitudinal network analysis of heterotypic and homotypic continuity
Yu, Q., Peterson, E. O., Parker, A. J., Briggs-Gowan, M. J., Wakschlag, L. S. & Wiggins, J. L., 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: International Journal of Behavioral Development. 01650254251344595.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Erratum to “Capturing the complexity of child behavior and caregiver-child interactions in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study using a rigorous and equitable approach” [Dev. Cognit. Neurosci. 69 (2024) 101422] (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (2024) 69, (S1878929324000835), (10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101422))
HBCD Child Behavior and Caregiver-Child Interactions Workgroup, Jun 2025, In: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 73, 101571.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
Open Access -
Evaluating the Construct Validity of Sentence-Focused Diversity Measures With Late-Talking Toddlers and Same-Age Peers
Hadley, P. A., Harrington, E. K., Krok, W. C., Prezaa, T., Harriott, E. M., Manning, B. L., Wakschlag, L. S. & Nortonb, E. S., Apr 2025, In: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 68, 4, p. 1886-1901 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Maternal Oral Reading Expressiveness in Relation to Toddlers’ Concurrent Language Skills Across a Continuum of Early Language Abilities
Zuk, J., Davison, K. E., Doherty, L. A., Manning, B. L., Wakschlag, L. S. & Norton, E. S., Mar 2025, In: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 68, 3, p. 1177-1187 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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. F. (Creator), Yeh, C. (Creator), Lovejoy, A. (Creator), Zakieh, D. (Creator) & Tandon, S. D. (Creator), figshare, 2021
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5507052, 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
Dataset