New Directions for Early Childhood Clinical Training, Public Policy, and Research: Lessons Learned From PACT

This chapter addresses the lessons learned from the PACT studies and other extant research in developmental psychopathology to highlight needed changes in the training of clinical child psychologists, a call for more aggressive public policy initiatives, and important directions for future research. Despite the resources that have been devoted to the development of empirically based treatments in early childhood mental health and the advances that have been made, current trends in child mental health do not reveal improved developmental trajectories for many children. Long causal chains contributing to poorer child mental health outcomes highlight the need for greater attention to contextual impacts and other risk factors that affect child mental health. This chapter focuses on promising avenues for future training of clinical child psychologists, for developing a public health approach to child mental health that includes prevention, early targeted intervention, and intensive intervention, and for new research initiatives. Improving the lives of young children requires us to expand efforts directed toward child mental health to places where children live, learn, and play.