Yale Child Study Center

The Child Study Center (CSC) at Yale has emerged as one of the major sites for child psychiatric research nationally, with three program project grants, multiple project grants and career development awards from NIMH, NICHD, and NINDS. The research program at the Center embodies a broad, interdisciplinary approach to the study of development and the causes of behavioral, emotional, and developmental disorders of childhood. Among the guiding principles of the research program is the expectation that every clinical research program undertaken at the Center must be built upon exemplary clinical services. Much of research is characterized by an application of principles of normal development to the understanding of clinical disorders throughout the life-span; the multigenerational nature of the transmission of risk and protective factors; and the often complementary roles of environmental and constitutional factors in the pathogenesis of disorders. Consequently, the research program within the Center encompasses studies at many levels of behavioral/psychological organization and development-- from the molecular biology of brain maturation, through studies of the functioning of the brain and the emergence of complex behavioral processes, to clinical syndromes in individual children (such as autism and Tourette's syndrome) and problems within families.

In addition to its role as a productive clinical research center, the CSC sponsors 7 fellowship training programs in areas as diverse as child development, pediatrics, psychology, social work, and law. The NIMH Research Training Program in Childhood Neurobiological Disorders is designed to provide two years of patient-oriented research training to an interdisciplinary group of postdoctoral fellows. The program includes a core curriculum to provide formal training in research methods, as well as preceptor-directed research training. The ultimate goal of the program is to increase the number and quality of investigators pursuing academic careers in patient-oriented research related to childhood neurobiological disorders.

Contact information—Phone (203) 785-2513

http://info.med.yale.edu/chldstdy