The first two years of life are a period of unparalleled growth and change. Within a state-of-the-art biopsychosocial framework, this innovative volume explores the multiple contexts of infant development--the ways in which genes, neurobiology, behavior, and environment interact and shape each other over time. Methods for disentangling, measuring, and analyzing complex, nonlinear developmental processes are presented. Contributors explore influences on the infant's growth in major domains, including cognitive and socioemotional functioning and mental health. The consequences of family stress, poverty, and other adversities are probed, and promising directions for prevention and intervention identified.
Susan D. Calkins, PhD, is the Bank of America Excellence Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she directs the Child and Family Research Network. Dr. Calkins conducts longitudinal studies of the biological, psychological, and social processes that influence emotional development from infancy through young adulthood.