Dr. Pasco Fearon is Chair of Developmental Psychopathology in the Division of Psychology & Language Sciences at University College London (UCL).
His research focuses on the mechanisms of socio-emotional development and the processes involved in risk for psychopathology. He is particularly interested in the intersection between social and biological processes in children’s development, and accordingly he uses a range of diverse methods, including observational techniques for measuring family processes (attachment, parenting), quantitative and molecular genetics for examining genes and gene-environment interactions, and biological measurements for capturing peripheral physiology (e.g. cortisol, heart rate) and brain function (EEG, fMRI). As his primary interest is in development, much of his work involves longitudinal cohort studies, and multivariate longitudinal data analysis. Dr. Fearon is the deputy Editor in Chief for JCPP.
Links on ACAMH website
Podcasts
- Professor Pasco Fearon and attachment (2019) Professor Pasco Fearon discusses his work on attachment in this short podcast with ACAMH.
- Professor Pasco Fearon and JCPP at 60 (2019) What are the papers that influenced Pasco?
Editorials
- JCPP Editorial: Volume 63, Issue 01, January 2022 “‘The giant’s shoulders’: understanding Michael Rutter’s impact on science and society” by Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Pasco Fearon, Stephen Scott
- JCPP Editorial: Volume 62, Issue 12, December 2021 “Do lockdowns scar? Three putative mechanisms through which COVID-19 mitigation policies could cause long-term harm to young people’s mental health” by Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Pasco Fearon
- JCPP Editorial: Volume 60, Issue 02, February 2019 “Closing in on causal links between environmental exposures and human development using observational data – ‘confound those confounders!'” by Pasco Fearon
- JCPP Editorial: Volume 58, Issue 04, April 2017 “Child psychology and psychiatry – using science to make a difference” by Pasco Fearon
- JCPP Editorial: Volume 58, Issue 03, March 2017 “Making clinical trials smarter (and more interesting)” by Pasco Fearon
- JCPP Editorial: Volume 57, Issue 03, March 2016 “Looking beyond the horizon – innovation in child psychology and psychiatry” by Pasco Fearon
- JCPP Editorial: Volume 56, Issue 03, March 2015 “Capturing the dynamics of development and psychopathology: from neural circuits to global trends” by Pasco Fearon
Recorded talks, lectures, and discussions
- ‘Myth-busting around attachment theory’ (2019) Recorded on Friday 8 March 2019 at the Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture & National Conference ‘Attachment & early intervention: Improving emotional wellbeing and relationships in the family, and at school’
- Infant Mental Health (2018) Lecture from Professor Pasco Fearon titled ‘Recent findings on the intergenerational transmission of vulnerability’. This was recorded on 12/12/18 at the ACAMH Southern Branch Conference on Infant Mental Health.
- In Conversation… JCPP Annual Research Review Webinar (2018) Join JCPP’s Editor-in-Chief, Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke and Annual Research Review Editor, Professor Pasco Fearon, as they talk to researchers about the Annual Research Review in this webinar.
Blogs
- Most cited CAMH paper #24 of 25: A Follow‐up Study of Characteristics of Young People that Dropout and Continue Psychotherapy: Service Implications for a Clinic in the Community, by Geoffrey Baruch, Ioanna Vrouva, Pasco Fearon
Featured papers
- Open Access JCPP paper ‘Socioeconomic and sex inequalities in parent-reported adolescent mental ill-health: time trends in four British birth cohorts’, (2022), Eoin McElroy, Marc Tibber, Pasco Fearon, Praveetha Patalay, George B. Ploubidis
- Open Access JCPP paper ‘Editorial Perspective: On the need for clarity about attachment terminology’, (2022), Marije L. Verhage, Anne Tharner, Robbie Duschinsky, Guy Bosmans, Pasco Fearon
