Dante Cicchetti is a scientist specializing in the fields of developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology, particularly the conduct of multilevel research with high-risk and disenfranchised populations, including maltreated children and offspring of depressed parents. He currently holds a joint appointment in the University of Minnesota Medical School's psychiatry department, and in the Institute of Child Development. He is the McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair and the William Harris Endowed Chair.
While at Harvard, he began publishing on emotional development, Down syndrome, child maltreatment, and on the development of conditions such as depression and borderline personality disorder. In 1984, he edited a special issue of Child Development on developmental psychopathology that served to acquaint the developmental community with this emerging discipline. Subsequently, the emergence of the field of developmental psychopathology began in 1989 with the publication of the first of the 9 volumes of the Rochester Symposia on Developmental Psychopathology, and with the inaugural issue of the journal Development and Psychopathology. Cicchetti's major research interests lie in the formulation of an integrative developmental theory that describes and explains the full range of human psychological functioning. His work has involved several domains, including developmental psychopathology, the developmental consequences of child maltreatment, neuroplasticity and sensitive periods, the impact of traumatic experiences upon brain development, the biology and psychology of unipolar and bipolar mood disorders, the interrelationships among molecular genetic, neurobiological, socio-emotional, cognitive, linguistic and representational development in normal and pathological populations, the study of attachment relations and representational models of the self and its disorders across the life span, and multilevel perspectives on resilience; and 9) multilevel evaluations of randomized controlled trial interventions for depressed and maltreated children and adolescents. Cicchetti's research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, and the William T. Grant Foundation.
Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. A.. Gene by Environment interaction and resilience: Effects of child maltreatment and serotonin, corticotropin releasing hormone, dopamine, and oxytocin genes. Development and Psychopathology, 24.
Cicchetti, D., Rogosch, F. A., & Oshri, A.. Interactive effects of corticotropin releasing hormone receptor 1, serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region, and child maltreatment on diurnal cortisol regulation and internalizing symptomatology. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 1125–1138.
Cicchetti, D.. Resilience under conditions of extreme stress: A multilevel perspective . World Psychiatry, 9, 1-10.
Cicchetti, D., Rogosch, F. A., Toth, S. L., & Sturge-Apple, M. L.. Normalizing the development of cortisol regulation in maltreated infants through preventive interventions. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 789–800.
Cicchetti, D.. An odyssey of discovery: Lessons learned through three decades of research on child maltreatment. American Psychologist, 59, 4-14.
Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F.. Psychopathology as risk for adolescent substance use disorders: A developmental psychopathology perspective. Journal of Clinical Child Psychiatry, 28, 355–365.
Books edited
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J... Developmental psychopathology: Theory and method. New York: Wiley.
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J... Developmental psychopathology: Developmental neuroscience. New York: Wiley.
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J... Developmental psychopathology: Risk, disorder, and adaptation.. New York: Wiley.
Attachment in the Preschool Years: Theory, Research, and Intervention by Dante Cicchetti, Mark T. Greenberg, E. Mark Cummings. .
Child Maltreatment: Theory and Research on the Causes and Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect by Dante Cicchetti, Vicki K. Carlson. . Cambridge University Press.
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J... Developmental psychopathology: Theory and method. New York: Wiley.
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J... Developmental psychopathology: Risk, disorder, and adaptation. New York: Wiley.
