Dr. Randy P. Auerbach’s primary program of research is aimed at identifying cognitive, interpersonal, environmental, and neurobiological factors that render certain children, adolescents and young adults vulnerable to experience depressive symptoms and episodes. The research incorporates a developmental, psychopathological perspective through its attention to the types and severity of stressors that youth experience, peer and environmental influences, and resources available for coping. Dr. Auerbach has also examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and risky behavior engagement among youth. In doing so, he has delineated the time-lagged relationship between painful negative affect and subsequent engagement in risky behaviors including substance use, precocious sexual behaviors, and aggression, as well as identified factors that potentiate this relationship. To date, Dr. Auerbach has examined etiological models of depression and risky behavior engagement in Western individuals, and further, he has examined the cross-cultural applicability of these models as well as explored “culture-specific models” for youth from mainland China. Recently, Dr. Auerbach has developed both an investigatory group treatment program for children and adolescents that integrates diverse theoretical frameworks. The aims of the program include: (a) attenuating depressive symptoms, (b) examining clinical, behavioral, and neurobiological variables that may mediate symptom change, and (c) understanding the “active ingredients” involved in psychotherapy.