Karin Roelofs

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Karin Roelofs is a leading researcher in developmental psychopathology, with a focus on the early-life origins of internalizing and externalizing disorders. Her work centers on **freezing behavior** as a universal, adaptive response to threat, and how its prolonged or atypical expression in infancy and toddlerhood serves as a powerful early risk marker for later psychopathology. In a landmark prospective longitudinal study (2018, 17 citations), Roelofs demonstrated that infant freezing duration prospectively predicts the development of internalizing symptoms in adolescence, offering a critical window for early detection. She has further explored the **gene-environment etiology** of freezing (2022, 7 citations), showing how subtle deviations—either absence of freezing or excessively long reactions—are linked to adolescent anxiety and depression. More recently, Roelofs has investigated **behavioral inhibition** as a protective factor against callous-unemotional (CU) traits (2022, 4 citations), revealing that heightened threat sensitivity may paradoxically shield against the development of antisocial behavior. By bridging animal models of threat coping with human developmental trajectories, Roelofs provides a neurobiologically grounded framework for understanding how early stress reactivity shapes lifelong mental health. Her work has significant implications for early intervention and prevention strategies in child psychiatry.