Lifelong Developmental Processes Associated with Resilience and Psychopathology

Mental health outcomes in childhood and adolescence emerge through complex developmental processes shaped by the interaction of biological, psychological, familial, social, and environmental influences over time, as well as the cognitive processes through which individuals perceive, attend to, interpret, and respond to their experiences. Exposure to adversity does not lead uniformly to psychopathology, just as the presence of protective factors does not guarantee resilience in the same way for all individuals. Understanding how risk, adaptation, vulnerability, and recovery unfold across development remains a central challenge for both developmental science and child and adolescent psychiatry.This Research Topic aims to bring together contributions that examine developmental pathways associated with resilience and psychopathology across the first two decades of life and beyond. It seeks to encourage work that bridges developmental psychology, developmental psychopathology, cognitive development, psychiatry, clinical science, and allied disciplines in order to better understand how mental health trajectories are shaped over time and across contexts.A developmental perspective is essential for understanding why some children and adolescents exposed to adversity experience persistent difficulties, while others show adaptation, recovery, or resilience. Equally, early-emerging symptoms, vulnerabilities, and protective processes can influence later functioning across multiple domains, including emotional well-being, behavior, relationships, and long-term psychiatric outcomes.This Topic is particularly interested in research that helps clarify the mechanisms linking early experiences with later mental health, including the role of developmental timing, family and peer contexts, social inequalities, access to preventive or therapeutic support, and cognitive processes that may mediate or moderate these associations. By bringing together multidisciplinary work, the collection aims to support a more integrated understanding of risk and resilience that is clinically and developmentally meaningful.We welcome submissions addressing developmental processes associated with resilience and psychopathology in children, adolescents, and young people, particularly where findings have clear relevance for mental health, psychiatric risk, prevention, early identification, or intervention. Contributions may adopt clinical, developmental, psychiatric, epidemiological, experimental, social science, or translational perspectives.We are particularly interested in work that examines how adversity, environmental exposure, neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and psychosocial factors, and protective experiences interact to shape developmental trajectories over time.Themes of interest may include, but are not limited to:• developmental pathways to resilience and psychopathology• adaptation and maladaptation following adversity• risk and protective factors across childhood and adolescence• developmental timing and sensitive periods• family, peer, school, and community influences on mental health• social inequalities and structural influences on child and adolescent mental health• longitudinal studies of mental health trajectories• mechanisms linking early experiences to later outcomes, including cognitive and neurobiological processes• interactions between cognition and emotional, social, or behavioural functioning across development• prevention and early intervention approaches• therapeutic and support strategies that promote resilience• forensic, clinical, or high-risk developmental contexts• multidisciplinary approaches connecting developmental science and psychiatryTypes of contributions: We welcome a broad range of article types and methodological approaches, including:• longitudinal studies• mixed-methods research• basic science and translational studies• experimental and quasi-experimental research• clinical studies• epidemiological research• social science contributions• perspective or review articles where appropriateObjective: The overall objective of this Research Topic is to advance understanding of how resilience and psychopathology develop over time, and how this knowledge can inform prevention, early identification, and clinical practice in child and adolescent psychiatry.This Research Topic complements the University of Cyprus's Department of Psychology Conference “Lifelong Developmental Processes Associated with Resilience and Psychopathology” (Cyprus, 26 May 2026).If you were not directly invited by the Topic Editors but wish to submit, you are welcome to do so; however, please contact us at childandadolescentpsychiatry@frontiersin.org before submitting and wait for our confirmation that your manuscript is within scope. Topic editors: Kostas A. Fanti, Melina Nicole Kyranides, Panayiotis Stavrinides, Andria Shimi, Terrie Moffitt Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80366/lifelong-developmental-processes-associated-with-resilience-and-psychopathology