

Research Expertise and Interest
psychology, child clinical, developmental psychopathology, risk factors for attentional, conduct disorders, child psychopharmacology, multimodality interventions, diagnostic validity of disorders, peer relationships, stigma of mental illness
Research Description
Stephen P. Hinshaw is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, and a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UC San Francisco. His main interests lie in the fields of clinical child and adolescent psychology and developmental psychopathology. Major themes of his work include the diagnostic validity of childhood disorders, the role of family interactions and peer relationships in normal and atypical development (particularly ADHD), the early prediction of behavioral and learning problems, the neuropsychology and neurobiology of impulsive and externalizing behavior in childhood, and the implementation of combinations of psychosocial and pharmacologic intervention for children with externalizing behavior disorders. He is particularly interested in the use of clinical intervention studies to provide information on developmental mechanisms of change regarding psychopathology and resilience. His research team is increasingly focused on adolescent and young adult outcomes, as children in his various projects continue to participate in prospective, longitudinal studies from childhood through adulthood. He directs the Berkeley Girls with ADHD Longitudinal Study (BGALS), the largest follow-up study of girls with ADHD in existence, having uncovered high risk for self-harm (including suicicdal behavior), intimate partner violence, and longstanding mood disorders in a significant subset.
More recent conceptual and empirical work is focused on the conceptual underpinnings of definitions of mental disorders and the stigma that pertains to persons with mental illness. He is engaged in clinical trials with adolescents with the intention of reducing stigma and enhancing humanization.
He is an award-winning teacher and mentor, and the recipient of major international research awards in child development, clinical psychology, basic psychological research, applied psychological research, child/adolescent psychiatric research, and international mental health--and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.