This application is for a 5-year renewal of the T32 Training Program in the Development of Psychopathology: From Brain and Behavior to Intervention. Mental and substance abuse disorders are more likely to arise early in life...[and] are, in fact, the predominant noncommunicable disorders of young people (Insel, 2014; p. 1727). Therefore, early identification of risk processes and early intervention are crucial. As the field has been shifting from a behavioral to a neurodevelopmental focus, this training program also has been evolving to reflect important advances in human brain development. The major thrust of this interdisciplinary program is to produce scientists who will (1) contribute to the state of knowledge about neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of psychopathology, and (2) translate findings from basic research to the development of empirically-based interventions for the prevention and amelioration of psychopathology and for the promotion of mental health. The training program provides individual mentoring in multidisciplinary science complemented by didactic activities. A personalized training plan is developed for each fellow and re-evaluated each semester. In the last five years, we have explicitly shifted our focus to increasing training on multidisciplinary research on neurobiological, psychophysiological, genetic, and psychosocial mechanisms underlying psychiatric illness. Since the last renewal in 2010, three of the 11 (27%) predoctoral trainees and two of the five postdocs (40%) have come from neuroscience programs. In the last decade, over 75% of our 24 pre- and 12 post-doctoral trainees have continued to contribute to the field through scholarly research and teaching. A quarter of trainees represent diverse ethnic minority groups and 67% have been female. Four predocs continue in training on this T32; 3 other former predoc trainees are working on their dissertations; 3 are doing their required clinical internship. All 14 remaining former predoc trainees have completed their PhDs; 6 are researchers in faculty positions in academic psychology departments; 2 are postdoctoral fellows; 4 do a combination of clinical service, consulting, teaching, and supervision, and 2 are doing clinical work. Of the 12 postdoctoral fellows, 3 continue in training; 7 of the 9 former postdocs are still actively involved in research and teaching. Other important indicators of the training program's success are trainees' publication records [predocs: 141 papers, mean=5.9; median=5; postdocs: 157 papers, mean=13.08; median =13] and their acquisition of research funding from individual career development awards (F30, F31, K01, K99), R-type grants (e.g., R34, R21, R00), and foundations (e.g., Brain Behavior Research Fund). This renewal application proposes to again support 4 predoctoral trainees and 3 postdoctoral fellows annually. Our primary goals for the next five years are to continue to develop research scientists who can discover and translate basic knowledge from clinical neuroscience into interventions for reducing psychopathology. We will especially focus on the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), grant writing, and professional development.
The primary aim of this interdisciplinary training program is to produce scientists who will (a) discover neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of psychopathology, and (b) translate this basic knowledge into empirically-based interventions that reduce current and future psychopathology and promote mental health and adaptation.
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