A complete understanding of how psychopathology develops over time, is transmitted across generations, and is influenced by familial and broader social contexts is necessary for developing comprehensive etiological models of psychopathology and related processes, and identification of causal mechanisms is necessary for developing the most targeted and effective prevention and interventions. Yet, many of our most fundamental questions about etiological contributors to the development of psychopathology and mechanisms of its familial transmission cannot be definitively answered using usual study designs. Drawing from a developmental psychopathology framework and using complementary, longitudinal, genetically informative, and quasi-experimental study designs in multiple largescale cohorts, my work aims to address this challenge. In this talk, I will present a series of studies, including identifying risk factors for and effects of depression, differentiating pre-existing liability toward substance use from exposure-related effects on brain, examining effects of prenatal substance exposure on infant and child development, distinguishing genetic from environmental mechanisms of the familial transmission of psychopathology, and considering whether and how cannabis legalization has a causal effect on children, adolescents, and families. This work also considers broader contextual factors that may influence exposure to risk and adversity, as well as access to protective resources. Although no single study or approach is sufficient on its own, leveraging these multiple genetically and causally informative study designs in a complementary fashion can help us begin to triangulate on etiology and causal mechanisms to better understand the development and familial transmission of psychopathology.

*The talk will be followed by a reception with light refreshments.