EBLS Key Questions

KEY QUESTIONS EBLS SEEKS TO ANSWER

EBLS will answer key questions related to the interplay of biological, psychological and social mechanisms that influence development in the first years of life, focusing on adversities such as exposure to violence and factors that promote resilience.

These include:

 What are the cross-cultural as well as culture-specific mechanisms that underpin resilience and vulnerability to diverse forms of adversity exposure? Answers to this question will inform more effective and tailored prevention strategies;

 What are the early-life mechanisms underpinning the tendency for mental health problems within individuals? Answers to this question will help to improve early diagnosis and to develop better interventions to interrupt the pathways through which comorbidity develops in high-risk contexts;

 What are the processes by which biological, psychological, family and wider social processes transact to influence the emergence of mental health problems across different cultures? An improved understanding of these issues will be critical for better integrating social and individual-level prevention strategies;

 How do causal mechanisms (from neurobiological to environmental) across multiple time scales (from seconds to decades) interact? Answers to these questions will help identify the most promising targets for intervention;

What services (medical, welfare, community support, public health, education) are available to parents of young children, by whom are they used and what do they offer? Answers to this question will allow us to examine how interventions affect the development of children and where the most urgent gaps are, thus informing prevention policy.