Assistant Professor of Psychology
About
Additional research interests: Population science, Genetic epidemiology, Self-regulation
Leah Richmond-Rakerd is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Clinical Science area at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri; completed her clinical internship at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and completed postdoctoral training at Duke University, supported by a fellowship from the NICHD through the Carolina Consortium on Human Development.
Dr. Richmond-Rakerd’s research focuses on emotional and behavioral dysregulation across the life course. Through her work, she aims to build knowledge about the origins, mechanisms, and outcomes of self-regulation difficulties, including disinhibitory disorders (substance use disorders and antisocial behavior), suicide, and self-harm. She also has an emerging line of work on the consequences of self-regulation difficulties for physical health and the aging process. She uses genetically-informative, longitudinal, and nationwide administrative-register study designs in her research.
Representative Publications:
Richmond-Rakerd, L.S., Caspi, A., Ambler, A., d’Arbeloff, T., de Bruine, M., Elliott, M., Harrington, H., Hogan, S., Houts, R.M., Ireland, D., Keenan, R., Knodt, A.R., Melzer, T.R., Park, S., Poulton, R., Ramrakha, S., Rasmussen, L.J.H., Sack, E., Schmidt, A.T., Sison, M.L., Wertz, J., Hariri, A.R., & Moffitt, T.E. (2021). Childhood self-control forecasts the pace of midlife aging and preparedness for old age. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118, e2010211118.
Richmond-Rakerd, L.S., D'Souza, S., Milne, B.J., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T.E. (2021). Longitudinal associations of mental disorders with physical diseases and mortality in 2.3 million New Zealand citizens. JAMA Network Open, 4, e2033448.
Richmond-Rakerd, L.S., Moffitt, T.E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D.W., Connor, J., Corcoran, D., Harrington, H., Houts, R.M., Poulton, R., Prinz, J., Ramrakha, S., Sugden, K., Wertz, J., Williams, B., & Caspi, A. (2020). A polygenic score for age-at-first-birth predicts disinhibition. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61, 1349-1359.
Richmond-Rakerd, L.S., D’Souza, S., Andersen, S.H., Hogan, S., Houts, R.M., Poulton, R., Ramrakha, S., Caspi, A., Milne, B.J., & Moffitt, T.E. (2020). Clustering of health, crime and social-welfare inequality in 4 million citizens from two nations. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 255-264.
Richmond-Rakerd, L.S., Caspi, A., Arseneault, L., Baldwin, J.R., Danese, A., Houts, R.M., Matthews, T., Wertz, J., & Moffitt, T.E. (2019). Adolescents who self-harm and commit violent crime: Testing early-life predictors of dual harm in a longitudinal cohort study. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 176, 186-195.
Richmond-Rakerd, L.S., Trull, T.J., Gizer, I.R., McLaughlin, K.D., Scheiderer, E.M., Nelson, E., Agrawal, A., Lynskey, M.T., Madden, P.A.F., Heath, A.C., Statham, D.J., & Martin, N.G. (2019). Common genetic contributions to high-risk trauma exposure and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Psychological Medicine, 49, 421-430.
Richmond-Rakerd, L.S., Slutske, W.S., & Wood, P.K. (2017). Age of initiation and substance use progression: A multivariate latent growth analysis. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 31, 664-675.
