Underlying the responses of 34 44-month-old children of adolescent mothers to five attachment narratives were two factors--departure and reunion. The departure factor included disorganized and insecure responses to parents' departure as well as disorganized responses to narratives about children's misbehavior and fear. Scores predicted children's externalizing behavior problems 10 months later and discriminated children in the clinical from those in the normal range for externalizing problems. Maternal depression explained significant additional variance in children's externalizing problems.

Developmental psychopathology focuses on developmental aspects of pathology as well as individual patterns of adaptation and maladaptation. Adaptation involves the resolution of earlier issues, with successful resolution facilitating adaptation and earlier developmental failures increasing the likelihood of future problems. The study of developmental psychology provides knowledge about normal processes in order to better understand psychopathology as well as groups at high risk for having problems over time. The project described in this paper focuses on applied psychoanalysis using psychoanalytic knowledge and theory in the context of an intervention project involving observational research. A case description of an adolescent mother and her child will be presented to illustrate issues about problematic development in a child first observed as part of the research project and later referred to a therapeutic nursery. The case will be discussed in relation to two questions: (1) Is it possible to define and evaluate manifestations of disturbance early in life that result in definable psychopathology at school age? (2) To what extent can the self‐righting capacity of the child or environmental intervention compensate in correcting the developmental process?

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Issues in designing a home visitor intervention and research program for 130 adolescent mothers, 17 and under, and their infants from birth to 30 months are discussed. The overall project is described, and various aspects of creating and maintaining a home visitor intervention program are discussed, including: (1) Issues and problems that arise with the integration of a home visitor intervention component into an ongoing health department program; (2) the recruitment and training of lay home visitors in the context of arduous, often disheartening work; (3) issues of supervision and quality control faced by the mental health consultants; (4) coping with potential stresses and dangers faced by the home visitors; (5) assisting and maintaining maximum communication for the research components of the study to be successful.

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