Nathan A. Fox | |
---|---|
Occupation | Distinguished University Professor |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Williams College, Harvard University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Maryland |
Main interests | Human Development,Quantitative Methodology |
Nathan A. Fox is a developmental psychologist known for his contributions to understanding how environmental factors affect early development. [1] [2] He holds the position of Distinguished University Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland.
Fox is known for his involvement in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, [3] a longitudinal study of the effects of social deprivation experienced by children who were abandoned by their families and living in institutions in Bucharest,Romania. He and his colleagues Charles Nelson III,and Charles H. Zeanah are all Principal Investigators of the study. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project was a randomized controlled trial examining the impact of foster care as an intervention for children abandoned at birth. The study tracked children's neuropsychological and cognitive development from infancy through adolescence using metrics such as electroencephalography (EEG),fMRI,and language and cognitive assessments. [4] Findings of this study have been discussed in The New York Times , [5] Nature , [6] and many other media outlets.
Fox received a Bachelor's degree in Political Science with honors from Williams College in 1970. From there,he went on to receive his Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard University in 1975 and worked as a Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard in the field of cross-cultural child development. Fox's dissertation research examined effects of birth order on attachment styles of infants living in kibbutz,Israel. [7] his research also compared the attachment styles of infants with their mother versus their caregiver. [8]
After Fox received his PhD he went on to work as an assistant professor teaching Clinical Pediatric Psychology at Columbia University from 1978-1982. At the same time,Fox briefly worked at the New School for Social Research as a visiting lecturer from 1981-1992 before moving to Maryland. In Maryland,Fox worked as an assistant professor in the University of Maryland's Department of Human Development. [9] Fox has stayed at the University of Maryland since then. Fox became a Distinguished University Professor at University of Maryland in 2011. [9]
Fox has been involved in numerous committees. [9] His first committee was at the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1982. During his time,he worked to ensure safety compliances for children's products. [9] He was also on a few National Institute of Health's committees;where he was a reviewer for several programs such as the Child Health and Development panel. Fox served as President of the International Congress of Infant Studies from 1988-1990, [10] and as President of Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) of the American Psychological Association from 2001-2002. [11]
In 2014,Fox co-authored with Charles Nelson and Charles H. Zeanah Romania's abandoned children:deprivation,brain development,and the struggle for recovery, [12] a book reporting findings related to The Bucharest Early Intervention Project. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project aimed to understand effects of social deprivation on infants. The project increased understanding of the welfare of abandoned infants and how their physical and mental behavior may change with increased access to caregivers. [13] [14]
Agencies that have supported Fox's work include the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, [15] the National Science Foundation, [16] and the National Institutes of Health. Projects include the Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium,the Neural Origins of Temperamental Risk for Anxiety,and Effects of Early Psychosocial Deprivation on Mental Health in Early Adulthood. [17]
Fox's research program has closely examined infant emotionality and temperament,to understand how these factors are associated with individual differences in behavior and self-regulation later in life. [15] Some of Fox's most cited research focuses on development of behavioral inhibition,which is a temperament related to the experience of distress and withdrawal from unfamiliar environments. [18] [19] [20] [21] In one of his studies,he used EEG in a longitudinal study to trace continuities and discontinuities in behavioral inhibition from infancy through age four. [19]
Fox currently spearheads the Child Development Lab,which is involved in multiple studies that observe of infant behavior and development. These studies include;The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (H.B.C.D), [22] a longitudinal study launched in April 2018 that focuses on the understanding prenatal substance abuse and its effects on brain development and behavior,The National Institute's of Health (NIH) HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) Initiative, [23] and the Temperament Over Time Study (T.O.T.S), [24] another on-going longitudinal study exploring environmental and other factors that may affect social development. Some participants of the T.O.T.S have been involved since four months of age. The researchers plan to track the social development of the participants over the course of 15 years.
Fox's research has made important contributions to the field of child development,specifically in regards to understanding how the temperament of the child,their caregivers,the environment,and many other factors influence developmental outcomes. He has played a pivotal role in shaping how research is conducted in the field and continues to push on,with many projects still underway.
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow,change,and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children,the field has expanded to include adolescence,adult development,aging,and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking,feeling,and behaviors change throughout life. This field examines change across three major dimensions,which are physical development,cognitive development,and social emotional development. Within these three dimensions are a broad range of topics including motor skills,executive functions,moral understanding,language acquisition,social change,personality,emotional development,self-concept,and identity formation.
Attachment disorder is a broad term intended to describe disorders of mood,behavior,and social relationships arising from unavailability of normal socializing care and attention from primary care giving figures in early childhood. Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences of neglect,abuse,abrupt separation from caregivers between three months and three years of age,frequent change or excessive numbers of caregivers,or lack of caregiver responsiveness to child communicative efforts resulting in a lack of basic trust. A problematic history of social relationships occurring after about age three may be distressing to a child,but does not result in attachment disorder.
Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is described in clinical literature as a severe and relatively uncommon disorder that can affect children,although these issues do occasionally persist into adulthood. RAD is characterized by markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate ways of relating socially in most contexts. It can take the form of a persistent failure to initiate or respond to most social interactions in a developmentally appropriate way—known as the "inhibited form". In the DSM-5,the "disinhibited form" is considered a separate diagnosis named "disinhibited attachment disorder".
Harry Frederick Harlow was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation,dependency needs,and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys,which manifested the importance of caregiving and companionship to social and cognitive development. He conducted most of his research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison,where humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow worked with him for a short period of time.
Attachment theory is a psychological,evolutionary and ethnological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development. The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby.
Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of disorders that affect the development of the nervous system,leading to abnormal brain function which may affect emotion,learning ability,self-control,and memory. The effects of neurodevelopmental disorders tend to last for a person's lifetime.
Child development involves the biological,psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages of life which include early childhood,middle childhood,and late childhood (preadolescence). Early childhood typically ranges from infancy to the age of 6 years old. During this period,development is significant,as many of life's milestones happen during this time period such as first words,learning to crawl,and learning to walk. There is speculation that middle childhood/preadolescence or ages 6–12 are the most crucial years of a child's life. Adolescence is the stage of life that typically starts around the major onset of puberty,with markers such as menarche and spermarche,typically occurring at 12–13 years of age. It has been defined as ages 10 to 19 by the World Health Organization. In the course of development,the individual human progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy. It is a continuous process with a predictable sequence,yet has a unique course for every child. It does not progress at the same rate and each stage is affected by the preceding developmental experiences. Because genetic factors and events during prenatal life may strongly influence developmental changes,genetics and prenatal development usually form a part of the study of child development. Related terms include developmental psychology,referring to development throughout the lifespan,and pediatrics,the branch of medicine relating to the care of children.
Maternal deprivation is a scientific term summarising the early work of psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby on the effects of separating infants and young children from their mother. Although the effect of loss of the mother on the developing child had been considered earlier by Freud and other theorists,Bowlby's work on delinquent and affectionless children and the effects of hospital and institutional care led to his being commissioned to write the World Health Organization's report on the mental health of homeless children in post-war Europe whilst he was head of the Department for Children and Parents at the Tavistock Clinic in London after World War II. The result was the monograph Maternal Care and Mental Health published in 1951,which sets out the maternal deprivation hypothesis.
Charles H. Zeanah Jr. is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who is a member of the council (Board) of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).
The behavioral analysis of child development originates from John B. Watson's behaviorism.
Attachment theory,originating in the work of John Bowlby,is a psychological,evolutionary and ethological theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings.
Attachment-based therapy applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory,originated by John Bowlby. These range from individual therapeutic approaches to public health programs to interventions specifically designed for foster carers. Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of socioemotional development with one of the broadest,deepest research lines in modern psychology,attachment theory has,until recently,been less clinically applied than theories with far less empirical support. This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used amongst practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the pseudo-scientific interventions misleadingly known as attachment therapy. The approaches set out below are examples of recent clinical applications of attachment theory by mainstream attachment theorists and clinicians and are aimed at infants or children who have developed or are at risk of developing less desirable,insecure attachment styles or an attachment disorder.
Daniel S. Schechter is an American and Swiss psychiatrist known for his clinical work and research on intergenerational transmission or "communication" of violent trauma and related psychopathology involving parents and very young children. His published work in this area following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York of September 11,2001 led to a co-edited book entitled "September 11:Trauma and Human Bonds" (2003) and additional original articles with clinical psychologist Susan Coates that were translated into multiple languages and remain among the first accounts of 9/11 related loss and trauma described by mental health professionals who also experienced the attacks and their aftermath Schechter observed that separation anxiety among infants and young children who had either lost or feared loss of their caregivers triggered posttraumatic stress symptoms in the surviving caregivers. These observations validated his prior work on the adverse impact of family violence on the early parent-child relationship,formative social-emotional development and related attachment disturbances involving mutual dysregulation of emotion and arousal. This body of work on trauma and attachment has been cited by prominent authors in the attachment theory,psychological trauma,developmental psychobiology and neuroscience literatures
Social deprivation is the reduction or prevention of culturally normal interaction between an individual and the rest of society. This social deprivation is included in a broad network of correlated factors that contribute to social exclusion;these factors include mental illness,poverty,poor education,and low socioeconomic status. Norms and values.
Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED),or Disinhibited Attachment Disorder, is an attachment disorder in which a child has little to no fear of unfamiliar adults and may actively approach them. It can significantly impair young children's abilities to relate with adults and peers,according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. as well as put them in dangerous and potentially unsafe conditions. Common examples of this include sitting on a person's lap of which they do not know or leaving with a stranger.
Charles A. Nelson III is an American neuroscientist and psychologist. His international projects include a long-standing project on institutionalized children in Romania,children growing up in a slum in Dhaka,Bangladesh,infants in Puerto Rico exposed to the Zika virus,and children growing up in challenging circumstances in Sao Paulo,Brazil. Dr. Nelson has also focused his research efforts on the development of memory and the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion in infants and young children. Recently,Nelson was recognized for his on-going research with infants and children at high risk for developing autism spectrum disorder.
Connie Kasari is an expert on autism spectrum disorder and a founding member of the Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) at the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA). Kasari is Professor of Psychological Studies in Education at UCLA and Professor of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is the leader of the Autism Intervention Research Network for Behavioral Health,a nine-institution research consortium.
Kimberly G. Noble is an American neuroscientist and pediatrician known for her work in socioeconomic disparities and children's cognitive development. She is Professor of Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College,Columbia University and Director of the Neurocognition,Early Experience and Development (NEED) Lab.
Koraly Elisa Pérez-Edgar is a developmental psychologist who studies the temperament of young children and connections between temperament,anxiety disorders,and other forms of psychopathology. She is known for her studies of shy children who may develop behavioral inhibition or social anxiety.
Daniel Messinger is an American interdisciplinary developmental psychologist,and academic. His research works span the field of developmental psychology with a focus on emotional and social development of children and infants,and the interactive behavior of children in preschool inclusive classroom.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)