It is with great pleasure that we introduce this special issue of Behaviour Research and Therapy focused on childhood factors influencing the development of psychopathology. In thinking about the focus of the special issue, considering what has and hasn't already been done, and what is the current state of the field, we reached the conclusion that a set of aspirational and inspirational papers from current leaders in the area were needed to advance knowledge in the field and provide important new directions for future research. We therefore decided on a special issue of short papers from leaders in the field in which they theorise about and discuss the development of psychopathology in their specific area of expertise. Our brief was quite broad yet simple: to discuss recent, cutting-edge issues, speculate about where the field might be going, where the future breakthroughs might come, and what directions might really advance the field. We were not looking for systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or even new empirical papers (although new data was welcome if relevant). Rather, we wanted to produce a special issue in which experienced leaders helped to pave the way for the next important steps in discovering the childhood determinants of psychopathology through innovative “ideas” and “future directions” types of papers.