Overview
Terrie E. Moffitt, Ph.D., is the Nannerl O. Keohane University Professor of Psychology at Duke University, and Professor of Social Development at King’s College London. Her expertise is in the areas of longitudinal methods, developmental theory, mental disorders and antisocial behaviors, neuropsychology, and genomics in behavioral science. She is currently uncovering the consequences of a lifetime of mental and behavioral disorder on processes of aging. She is the Associate Director of the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, which follows a 1972 birth cohort in New Zealand. She also co-founded the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study (E-Risk), which follows a 1994 birth cohort in the UK. Dr. Moffitt also is a licensed clinical psychologist, with specialization in neuropsychological assessment. She collaborates with criminologists, economists, geneticists, epidemiologists, sociologists, demographers, gerontologists, statisticians, neuroscientists, medical scientists, opthalmologists, and dentists. Dr. Moffitt is a fellow of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , as well as the British Academy, Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), Academia Europa, Association of Psychological Science, and the American Society of Criminology. She holds honorary doctorates from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and Universitat Basel, Switzerland. For her research, Dr. Moffitt has received both the American Psychological Association's Early Career Contribution Award and Distinguished Career Award. Dr. Moffitt was also awarded a Royal Society-Wolfson Merit Award, the Klaus-Grawe Prize, and was a recipient of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, NARSAD Ruane Prize, the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize, and in 2022 the Grawemeyer Prize. Her service includes serving as chair of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Science at NASEM, Chair of the NIA Data Monitoring Committee for the Health and Retirement Study, and Chair of the Jury for the Klaus J. Jacobs Prize in Switzerland. Dr. Moffitt attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for her undergraduate degree in psychology. She continued her training in psychology at the University of Southern California, receiving an M.A. in experimental animal behavior, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She also completed postdoctoral training in geriatrics and neuropsychology at the University of California Los Angeles Neuropsychiatric Institute. In her spare time, she works on her poison-ivy farm in North Carolina.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Scholarly Works
An epigenetic speedometer to measure Pace of Aging: FraminghamPACE
Preprint · July 9, 2026 ABSTRACTGeroscience clinical trials need biomarker surrogate endpoints for healthspan. Leading candidates are omics-based composites developed from machine learning analysis of aging phenotypes including ca ... Full text CitePsycho-social factors associated with disagreement between prospective and retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment.
Journal article Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · July 2026 BackgroundProspective and retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment often identify different individuals and are differentially associated with psychopathology. This study examines psycho-social factors that may explain discrepancies betwee ... Full text CiteAre Wednesday's Children Full of Woe? Children's Differences in Personality Are Independent of Day of Birth.
Journal article Journal of personality · June 2026 IntroductionNursery rhymes, which are rich in literary devices, benefit children's language learning. Less is known about the influence that nursery rhymes' messages may have on children's development. We focused on "Monday's Child," a popular nur ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Predict Mental Health Risk among Youth Presenting to Rural Primary Care Clinics
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2025 - 2029Duke-NCCU Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Training Program in Child Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Conditions Program (DN-IPT)
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPreceptor · Awarded by National Institute of Mental Health · 2024 - 2029Duke University Psychiatry Physician-Scientist Residency Training Program
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEMentor · Awarded by National Institute of Mental Health · 2024 - 2029View All Grants