Sensitive periods and other timing hypotheses in developmental psychopathology: A tutorial

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Biostatistics
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Assessing associations between repeated exposure and outcome measures over time is crucial.
• Understanding how these associations vary temporally is of particular interest in research.
• Existing methods often assume constant associations, limiting their applicability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a tutorial on four distinct temporal models for analyzing repeated measures.
• To demonstrate how to compare and select the best-fitting temporal model using data.
• To enable researchers to identify optimal intervention windows in developmental psychopathology.

Main Methods:

• Described four novel temporal models allowing time-varying associations between exposures and outcomes.
• Provided guidance on statistical testing to evaluate and compare these models.
• Focused on application in developmental psychopathology research.

Main Results:

• The proposed models allow for flexible examination of temporal associations.
• Methods enable the selection of the most appropriate temporal model based on data.
• Facilitates a more nuanced understanding of exposure-outcome relationships over time.

Conclusions:

• The presented temporal models offer a significant advancement over methods assuming constant associations.
• Selecting the optimal temporal model can reveal critical time windows for intervention.
• This approach enhances the precision of intervention strategies in developmental psychopathology.