Dr. Lauren Wakschlag

Biography

Lauren S Wakschlag, PhD, is a developmental and clinical psychologist focusing on early development from the prenatal to preschool period and its implications for mental health pathways. Her research emphasizes characterizing the phenotype of emerging mental health problems in early childhood, contributing to the creation of a developmentally-sensitive toolkit designed for the early identification of mental health issues. This toolkit helps differentiate between normative misbehavior and early onset disruptive behavior at preschool age. Dr. Wakschlag’s work has also centered on the neurodevelopmental substrates of irritability across common childhood-onset mental disorders, including prenatal origins of disease pathways. She utilizes causal modeling to explore the effects of prenatal smoking on disruptive behaviors within psychosocial contexts and has published findings on prenatal exposure and its relationship to neurobehavioral vulnerabilities during infancy and adolescence. Her long-term research goal is to develop characterized neurodevelopmental phenotypes that can serve as core prevention targets for mental health issues.

Research Interests