Parenting and Child Mental Health
We aim to identify how best to support parents in developing insight into their child’s behaviour and promoting a better ‘fit’ between their parenting practices and their child’s unique temperament.
Parenting and Child Anxiety
We investigate how parents can aid their child in developing the skills to manage strong negative emotions and to develop bravery, independence and a positive self-concept.
To achieve this, we examine parenting in relation to child anxiety across different types of parent-child interaction, including parent-child conversation and play, in order to determine what parents can do to help support their child's bravery and independence in different contexts.
Empathy and Prosocial Behaviour
Our research in behaviour problems focuses on children who have difficulty in feeling empathy for others, as these children are known to show a greater variety and severity of aggressive and antisocial behaviour.
Children and adolescents who have difficulty in feeling empathy for others often also have difficulty in forming good relationships with their parents. They may be rejecting or less responsive to parental attempts to show them affection, and of parental attempts to set limits on their behaviour.
We are looking at what types of parental reward and limit-setting strategies are most beneficial for these children in terms of the development of empathy and prosocial behaviour.
Our Research
Our research falls into two broad streams:
Follow the links above to read more about projects in each stream. You will find details of research currently being at our lab, as well as findings from completed studies.
Get Involved!
Want to take part in one of our research studies?
We are currently recruiting families of children aged 3 to 8 years for a study about children's response to reward and discipline.
Families who complete all assessments will also be given the opportunity to attend a free parenting information session. Click here to read more about the study and find out how to take part.
Resources
Please see our Resources for Parents page for a list of websites and books written for parents describing evidence-based strategies for helping your child overcome anxiety or to behave in a more prosocial and compliant manner.