We take a life course approach to investigating influences on mental health across development, from in utero exposures, through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and into later-life. We examine the biological and social pathways that shape mental health across an individual’s life and over generations. Our research includes work with longitudinal cohorts that follow individuals over time, neuroscientific investigations into the factors underlying socio-cognitive development and transdiagnostic research into the co-occurrence and developmental continuity between mental health conditions.