The primary founding aim of the journal was to "bring together original papers concerned with the child, from such diverse disciplines as psychiatry, psychology, paediatrics, psychoanalysis, social case-work and sociology".

[3] The original intent was also to extend the focus from the individual, then a characteristic feature of psychology and psychiatry practice, to the broader family and social context, recognising that development occurs in interactive social settings and that contributions from the other disciplines, including "cultural anthropology and animal behaviour", would benefit our understanding.

Further, it was recognised that the methodologies employed by the different disciplines represented by the Journal varied, ranging from those in which "a considerable degree of systematic exactitude is possible" to others in which "reliance has often to be placed on the more subjective evidence of the clinician or skilled observer".

The first editors were Elizabeth Irvine, a social worker, Colin Hindley, a medical practitioner turned developmental psychologist, and Emanuel Miller, a child psychiatrist whose ideas profoundly shaped the aims for the new Journal.

Since the 1990s, there has been further diversification of journal content, reflecting the emergence of many new developments that have an increasingly important impact on clinical research and practice.