College of Education and Human Development

Institute of Child Development

Sylia Wilson

  • Pronouns: she, her, hers

  • Associate Professor, McKnight Land-Grant Professor

Sylia Wilson

Areas of interest

Adolescents and youth, adulthood, alcohol and brain development, assessment and evaluation, developmental neuroscience, early childhood, executive function, families and parenting, genetics and epigenetics, high-risk populations, infancy, infant and early childhood mental health, lifespan, prenatal, relationships, resilience, social and emotional development, stress and maltreatment, vulnerable populations

Degrees

BA, Psychology, English, Macalester College, 2002
MS, Clinical Psychology, Northwestern University, 2009
PhD, Clinical Psychology, Northwestern University, 2012

Biography

Lab

The Family Cognitive Affective Neurodevelopment (Fam CAN) Lab

Research

I am interested in the developmental etiology of psychopathology--the underlying processes that lead to the development of mental illness. I focus in particular on major depression and substance abuse, two frequently comorbid internalizing/externalizing disorders that are common in adolescence and adulthood, are often preceded by problem behaviors/symptoms evident as early as the preschool years, and comprise a huge individual and public health burden.

My program of research integrates developmental, clinical, and neuroscience methods, and takes a lifetime developmental perspective that includes the study of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. Identifying the underlying neural and behavioral processes that are causally linked to the development of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology requires differentiation of premorbid causal risk from effects of disease progression on the brain and related behavior. I capitalize upon study designs and populations that are genetically and causally informative, including longitudinal, high-risk family, twin, and adoption study designs. I take a multimodal approach (behavioral, observational, neurocognitive, psychophysiological, magnetic resonance imaging) that spans multiple levels of analysis and is sensitive to varied presentations in different developmental periods.

An important aim of mine is to delineate the mechanisms by which early familial and environmental adversity disrupts and/or alters neurodevelopment in sensitive developmental periods, increasing risk for mental illness. By investigating how environmental adversity influences the brain during periods of rapid growth and change, such as infancy and the transition into adolescence, when the developing brain may be particularly vulnerable to stressful experiences and external influences, my research has critical implications for preventing or halting the progression of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, and for developing the most effective preventive-intervention efforts for at-risk children, adolescents, adults, and their families.

Advising expectations and availability

If you are a prospective student who is interested in working in the Family Cognitive Affective Neurodevelopment (Fam CAN) Lab with Dr. Wilson, click here to review her advising expectations. The document outlines what you can expect from Dr. Wilson as an advisor/mentor and provides an overview of her expectations of students in the developmental psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Minnesota.

Please note that for the 2025 admissions cycle Dr. Wilson is planning to take on new Ph.D. students as their primary advisor. If you are interested in learning more about applying to work with Dr. Wilson as a Ph.D. student, please see this overview of information for prospective applicants.
 

Publications

Wilson, S., & Rhee, S. H. (2022). Leveraging genetically informative study designs to understand the development and familial transmission of psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 34, 1645-1652.

Wilson, S., Haroian, K., Iacono, W. G., Krueger, R. F., Lee, J. J., Luciana, M. M., Malone, S. M., McGue, M., Roisman, G. I., & Vrieze, S. (2019). Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 22, 746-752. PMCID: PMC7056536

Wilson, S. (2024). Sociodemographic reporting and sample composition over three decades of psychopathology research: A systematic review and quantitative synthesis. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 133, 20-36.

Wilson, S., & Michelini, G. (in press). Incorporating neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive conditions in transdiagnostic models of psychopathology. In C. J. Hopwood & C. Sharp (Eds.), Dimensional diagnosis: Practical and conceptual issues in the integration of personality and psychopathology. New York, NY: Guilford.

Michelini, G., Carlisi, C. O., Eaton, N. R., Elison, J. E., Haltigan, J. D., Kotov, R., Krueger, R. F., Latzman, R. D., Li, J. J., Levin-Aspenson, H. F., Salum, G. A., South, S. C., Stanton, K., Waldman, I. D., & Wilson, S. (in press). Where do neurodevelopmental conditions fit in transdiagnostic psychiatric frameworks: Incorporating a new neurodevelopmental spectrum. World Psychiatry.

Wilson, S., & Olino, T. M. (2021). A developmental perspective on personality and psychopathology across the lifespan. Journal of Personality, 89, 915-932. PMID: 33550639

Wilson, S., & Rea-Sandin, G. R. (in press). Genetics. In E. W. Neblett & W. Troop-Gordon (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Adolescence (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Elsevier.

Wilson, S. & Rhee, S. H. (2022). Causal effects of cannabis legalization on parents, parenting, and children: A systematic review. Preventive Medicine, 156, 106956. PMID: 35074421

Rea-Sandin, G.*, Del Toro, J., & Wilson, S. (2024). The heritability of psychopathology symptoms in early adolescence: Moderation by family cultural values in the ABCD study. Behavior Genetics, 54, 119-136.

Schaefer, J. D.*, Jang, S.-K., Clark, D. A., Deak, J. D., Hicks, B. M., Iacono, W. G., Liu, M., McGue, M., Vrieze, S. I., & Wilson, S. (2023). Associations between polygenic risk of substance use and use disorder and alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use in adolescence and young adulthood in a longitudinal twin study. Psychological Medicine, 53, 2296-2306.

Schaefer, J. D.*, Jang, S.-K., Vrieze, S., Iacono, W. G., McGue, M., & Wilson, S. (2021). Adolescent cannabis use and adult psychoticism: A longitudinal co-twin control analysis using data from two cohorts. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 130, 691-701. PMCID: PMC8652585

Schaefer, J. D.*, Hamdi, N. R., Malone, S. M., Vrieze, S., Wilson, S., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2021). Associations between adolescent cannabis use and young-adult functioning in three longitudinal twin studies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118, e2013180118. PMID: 33782115

Harper, J.*, Malone, S. M., Wilson, S., Hunt, R. H., Thomas, K. M., & Iacono, W. G. (2021). The effects of alcohol and cannabis use on the cortical thickness of cognitive control and salience brain networks in emerging adulthood: A co-twin control study. Biological Psychiatry, 89, 1012-1022. PMCID: PMC8106644

Harper, J.*, Wilson, S., Malone, S. M., Hunt, R. H., Thomas, K. M., & Iacono, W. G. (2021). Orbitofrontal cortex thickness and substance use disorders in emerging adulthood: Causal inferences from a cotwin control/discordant twin study. Addiction, 116, 2548-2558. PMCID: PMC8328872

Malone, S. M., Wilson, S., Bair, J. L.*, McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2021). A co-twin control analysis of adolescent and young adult drinking effects on learning and memory. Addiction, 116, 1689-1699. PMCID: PMC8124080

Harper, J.*, Wilson, S., Bair, J. L.*, Hunt, R. H., Thomas, K. M., Malone, S. M., & Iacono, W.G. (2023). Testing the consequences of alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use on hippocampal volume: A quasi-experimental cotwin control analysis of young adult twins. Psychological Medicine, 53, 2671-2681.

Wilson, S., Malone, S. M., Hunt, R. H., Thomas, K. M., & Iacono, W. G. (2018). Problematic alcohol use and hippocampal volume in a female sample: Disentangling cause from consequence using a co-twin control study design. Psychological Medicine, 48, 1673-1684. PMCID: PMC5938157

Wilson, S., Bair, J. L.*, Thomas, K. M., & Iacono, W. G. (2017). Problematic alcohol use and reduced hippocampal volume: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Medicine, 47, 2288-2301.

Wilson, S. (2021). Substance use and the brain: It’s not straightforward to differentiate cause from consequence - A commentary on Kim-Spoon et al. (2020). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 62, 437-440. PMCID: PMC7887115

Padrutt, E.*, DeJoseph, M. L., Wilson, S., Mills-Koonce, R., & Berry, D. (2023). Measurement invariance of maternal depressive symptoms across the first two years since birth and across racial group, education, income, and state. Psychological Assessment, 35, 646-658. PMID: 37227837

Wilson, S., & Dumornay, N. M.* (2022). Rising rates of adolescent depression in the United States: Challenges and opportunities in the 2020s. Journal of Adolescent Health, 70, 354-355. PMCID: PMC8868033

Wilson, S., Vaidyanathan, U., Miller, M. B., McGue, M. & Iacono, W. G. (2014). Premorbid risk factors for major depressive disorder: Are they associated with early onset and recurrent course? Development and Psychopathology, 26, 1477-1493. PMCID: PMC4244653

Wilson, S., Hicks, B. M., Foster, K. T., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2015). Age of onset and course of major depressive disorder: Associations with psychosocial functioning outcomes in adulthood. Psychological Medicine, 45, 505-514. PMCID: 

Wilson, S., Elkins, I. J., Bair, J. L.*, Oleynick, V. C.*, Malone, S. M., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2018). Maladaptive personality traits and romantic relationship satisfaction: A monozygotic co-twin control analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 127, 339-347. PMCID: PMC5951396

Wilson, S., Stroud, C. B., & Durbin, C. E. (2017). Interpersonal dysfunction in personality disorders: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 677-734. PMCID: PMC5507693

Wilson, S., & Durbin, C. E. (2012). The Laboratory Parenting Assessment Battery: Development and preliminary validation of an observational parenting rating system. Psychological Assessment, 24, 823-832. PMID: 22545699

Wilson, S., & Durbin, C. E. (2010). Effects of paternal depression on fathers’ parenting behaviors: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 167-180.