recent research on child psychology

Articles on Child psychology

Displaying 1 - 20 of 79 articles.

Parents are increasingly saying their child is ‘dysregulated’. What does that actually mean?

Cher McGillivray , Bond University and Shawna Mastro Campbell , Bond University

‘Lazy’, ‘messy’, ‘smart’: how labels affect a child’s personality development

Montserrat Magro Gutiérrez , Universidad Nebrija and Paula Contesse Carvacho , Universidad Nebrija

Advertising toys to children is an environmental nightmare – here’s how parents can deal with it

Michelle Cowley-Cunningham , Dublin City University

3 ways to encourage kids to be more charitable and kind this holiday season

Hali Kil , Simon Fraser University

Why do some people who experience childhood trauma seem unaffected by it?

Kathryn Daley , RMIT University

Secure attachment to both parents − not just mothers − boosts children’s healthy development

Or Dagan , Long Island University Post and Carlo Schuengel , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

How do I tell my kids we are currently short on money – without freaking them out?

Rachael Sharman , University of the Sunshine Coast

What to do if your child is struggling: Steps caregivers can take to help kids and teens with their mental health

Sheri Madigan , University of Calgary and Tracy Vaillancourt , L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Can parents give their children too much attention?

Amy Brown , Swansea University

‘No, I still want that!’ How to help kids let go of old toys and stuff they no longer need

Shane Rogers , Edith Cowan University and Natalie Gately , Edith Cowan University

Is it OK to prank your kids? Do they get it? And where’s the line?

Back to school: Time to revisit strategies for child and family mental health

Nicole Racine , L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa ; Dillon Thomas Browne , University of Waterloo , and Stephanie G. Craig , University of Guelph

There is an urgent need to prevent the lifelong damage caused by adverse childhood experiences

Wolfgang Linden , University of British Columbia and Joelle LeMoult , University of British Columbia

What is gentle parenting? An expert explains

Stephen Scott , King's College London

5 tips for parents of new kindergartners who are younger than their classmates

Gregory Fabiano , Florida International University

Does hardening schools make students safer?

Elizabeth K. Anthony , Arizona State University

Why can’t you remember being born, learning to walk or saying your first words? What scientists know about ‘infantile amnesia’

Vanessa LoBue , Rutgers University - Newark

How children are helping to make their families more eco-friendly – new research

Shaheen Hosany , Royal Holloway University of London

Is the Easter bunny real? How to answer, according to a psychologist

Elizabeth Westrupp , Deakin University

Kids afraid of getting shots? Here are 3 easy ways for parents to help them

Lynn Gardner , Morehouse School of Medicine

Related Topics

• Child development
• Developmental psychology
• Mental health

Top contributors

Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast

Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary

Professor of Child Public Health, Swansea University

Assistant professor, School of Psychology, Scientist, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Associate Professor in Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam

Associate Professor in Psychology, Deakin University

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Child Psychiatry, University of Aberdeen

Senior Lecturer, Youth Work & Youth Studies, Social Equity Research Centre, RMIT University

Senior Lecturer in Education, King's College London

Professor of Child and Family Psychology, University of Sussex

Professor of Psychology, Professor of Music (rtd), University of Sydney

Lecturer in Psychology, University of Leeds

Fellow in Psychology, Harvard University

Professor in Professional Education and Leadership, School of Social Sciences, University of Stirling., University of Stirling

Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University

• X (Twitter)
• Unfollow topic Follow topic

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Am J Lifestyle Med
• v.15(1); Jan-Feb 2021

Parenting and Child Development: A Relational Health Perspective

A child’s development is embedded within a complex system of relationships. Among the many relationships that influence children’s growth and development, perhaps the most influential is the one that exists between parent and child. Recognition of the critical importance of early parent-child relationship quality for children’s socioemotional, cognitive, neurobiological, and health outcomes has contributed to a shift in efforts to identify relational determinants of child outcomes. Recent efforts to extend models of relational health to the field of child development highlight the role that parent, child, and contextual factors play in supporting the development and maintenance of healthy parent-child relationships. This review presents a parent-child relational health perspective on development, with an emphasis on socioemotional outcomes in early childhood, along with brief attention to obesity and eating behavior as a relationally informed health outcome. Also emphasized here is the parent–health care provider relationship as a context for supporting healthy outcomes within families as well as screening and intervention efforts to support optimal relational health within families, with the goal of improving mental and physical health within our communities.

‘Viewing development through the lens of relational health reflects recognition of the critical role that relationships play in children’s social, emotional, health, and cognitive outcomes.’

“In order to develop normally, a child requires progressively more complex joint activity with one or more adults who have an irrational emotional relationship with the child. Somebody’s got to be crazy about that kid. That’s number one. First, last and always.”—Urie Bronfenbrenner “If a community values its children it must cherish their parents.”—John Bowlby

Introduction

Bronfenbrenner recognized the critical importance of the emotional relationship between a child and an adult, whereas Bowlby’s observation underscores the responsibility of communities and practitioners in supporting healthy child development by supporting parents. The belief that we can support children directly, without supporting their parents, overlooks the complex system of relationships within which children develop. 1 Together, Bronfenbrenner and Bowlby remind us that to support healthy development, we must focus on the emotional quality of the relationships within which the child participates—as well as consider how the larger community supports those relationships.

Yet parenting is a broad topic and an exhaustive review is beyond the scope of any one article. Informed by the field of infant mental health with its explicit relational focus 2 and in an effort to contribute to our understanding of parenting as multiply determined, 3 we focus our discussion here on the construct of relational health as a tool for promoting socioemotional and physical health among young children. Relational health reflects a sense of “connectedness” with attuned others, including caregivers, family members, and other individuals within the community. 4 Such a focus is consistent with the field of lifestyle medicine—which considers the environment as a social determinant of health and well-being 5 —and research on health and social behavior, which highlights parents as significant influences on children’s health. 6 Viewing development through the lens of relational health reflects recognition of the critical role that relationships play in children’s social, emotional, health, and cognitive outcomes. 3 Accordingly, the revised Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC-05) 7 considers how characteristics of the broader caregiving environment, such as coparenting quality and other close relationships, relate to developmental and mental health diagnoses. 2

Relational Health Within Primary Care: The Parent-Provider Relationship

We suggest that the parent-provider relationship provides a potentially valuable, although far less emphasized, context for promoting relational health. We present a review of the literature surrounding relational health science and encourage the health care provider to view their patients through the relational health lens. When considered from this angle, for children and their caregivers, the relationship is the patient. As health care providers endeavor to encourage healthy lifestyle choices in the families they serve, each decision a family makes—whether to the benefit or detriment—will occur in the context of their relationships. The health care provider must learn to consider and then acknowledge the family support relationships present in the exam room, the waiting room, and at home to best engage a family’s healthy choices. When caring for patients through this approach, the provider will consider the patient’s treatment choices in their realistic and relational context, rather than as compliant versus noncompliant. Moreover, by acknowledging the provider’s own relationship to the family, the provider can become a supportive member of the treatment decision team rather than an information broker, motivational interviewer, or reticent supplier of difficult-to-follow advice.

The relational health perspective considers the practitioner as a supportive (or unsupportive) “other” in navigating the sometimes difficult, uncertain, or fear-provoking experience of parenting a child from preconception through adulthood. An awareness of relational health in pediatric and adult medicine settings may increase positive outcomes in both parents and children through increased empathy. Specifically, during challenging situations, the practitioner should assess and address relationship quality rather than judging parenting or assigning sole credit or blame to either the parent or child. The focus lies in identifying strengths and opportunities in service to the relationship. 4

Relational Health Within Families: The Parent-Child Relationship

A relational health perspective on development embodies a family systems perspective as well, which recognizes the interconnectedness of individuals and relationships within families 8 and the bidirectional, transactional nature of relationships 9 ; parents affect children and children affect parents. 10 A relational health approach to understanding parent-child relationships emphasizes the dyadic connection between parent and child. Although a multitude of factors have been explored as correlates and predictors of parenting and child outcomes, we focus here on a subset of the factors that may influence relational health, with the goal of increasing practitioners’ understanding of relationship-focused approaches to health promotion within families.

Parent-Child Attachment Relationships: Parental Sensitivity and Reflective Functioning

One of the most influential relationship-focused frameworks for understanding development is attachment theory. An extensive literature describes the early parent-child attachment relationship as an enduring, emotional bond that enables children to explore the environment, 11 yet maintain the proximity and contact necessary for healthy development. Parent-infant attachment relationships, therefore, provide the earliest contexts for children’s relational health. Secure attachment balances developmentally appropriate exploration of the world with seeking closeness and comfort from the caregiver when distressed. Secure parent-child attachment relationships are associated with a range of positive social and emotional outcomes in children. 12 , 13 Conversely, disorganized attachment, a form of insecure attachment, is a risk factor for poorer developmental outcomes 14 and has been linked to disturbed caregiving behavior. 15 - 17 Efforts aimed at increasing security within these critical early relationships remain of interest to researchers and clinicians. 18 Interventions including Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), 19 , 20 Circle of Security, 21 and Video Intervention for Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) 22 have been effective in promoting secure attachment and positive child outcomes (including fewer behavior problems) via creation of measurable, positive changes in parents’ sensitive and responsive behavior, a key factor in secure attachment. 23 , 24 Yet these interventions are not widely available to the public, thus limiting the ability of clinicians to offer them to their patients and families.

Perhaps the most effective mediator toward creating change in parental sensitivity and responsiveness is fostering growth in a parent’s reflective functioning (RF). RF reflects the extent to which a parent can consider the mental states (ie, thoughts, feelings, intentions) that may motivate the behavior of self and other. 25 This capacity can be described in terms of both self-focused RF and child-focused RF. 26 , 27 Interventions such as Minding the Baby 28 , 29 and Mothering from the Inside Out 30 , 31 appear effective in supporting healthy relational outcomes via a focus on growing RF. The concept of RF is also relevant for understanding how adults’ own early relational experiences may affect their parenting. 32

Recommendations for Providers

These 2 elements of parenting—sensitive, responsive caregiving and RF—support the formation of secure parent-child relationships. 24 We suggest that health care providers use thoughtful questioning that may support parental RF, as recently suggested and detailed by Ordway et al. 33 Health care providers can also demonstrate and model RF and help build this capacity in families via routine care and also in medically intensive environments. In environments such as the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), for example, barriers to parent-neonate relational health development are prominent because of parents coping with fears of infant death and infants experiencing frequent stressors. 34 - 39 Although NICU staff recognize the critical role they play in supporting early parent-child relational health and promoting positive socioemotional outcomes among infants born prematurely, 40 this role may come secondary to the provision of direct medical support to neonates. Professionals’ engagement in reflective practice, with its focus on awareness of the mental and feeling states of self and others, 41 may be one pathway toward promoting positive infant outcomes via the provision of greater psychological support to parents of premature and medically fragile newborns. Building reflective capacity among a range of health care providers may further strengthen the foundation of early relational health within families. 33

Mothering, Fathering, and Grandparenting

Although attachment perspectives historically have emphasized the mother-child relationship, attachment theory and research has been extended to a variety of other caregiver-child relationships, including father-child relationships. 42 - 44 A family systems perspective 8 on relational health suggests that to understand development, we must consider how mother-child and father-child relationships may independently or interactively contribute to developmental outcomes.

Rigorous recent research indicates that children benefit socially and emotionally when fathers are more involved in their lives. 45 Moreover, the benefits of father involvement hold for nonresident as well as resident fathers. 46 Yet fathers’ engagement in parenting is multiply determined, 47 and individual, family, and institutional-level factors may all play important roles in predicting paternal involvement. At an individual level, a father’s identity as a parent, 48 , 49 as well as a father’s attitudes and beliefs about his role in his child’s life, 50 , 51 matter for his engagement. At the family level, evidence highlights the quality of the father’s relationship with a child’s mother. For example, mothers are more likely to be gatekeepers within families, controlling fathers’ access to children as well as the quantity and quality of fathers’ interactions with their children. 52 , 53 At a policy level, compared with countries such as Sweden where paternal leave is supported, the lack of paid paternal leave within the United States may also present barriers to fathers’ involvement with their young children as well as erode fathers’ sense of efficacy in the parental role. 54

Above and beyond these individual, family, and policy variables, mothers’ and fathers’ parenting may differ and uniquely predict developmental outcomes. For example, mothers may be the primary providers of emotional security for children via the establishment of early parent-child attachment relationships, whereas for fathers, exploration of the world may be a primary emphasis in parenting. 55 Fathers’ more stimulating play style—often involving rough-and-tumble play—may promote positive outcomes in children, including developmentally appropriate risk taking and establishment of autonomy. 56 , 57 Mothers, by contrast, are more likely to engage in object-mediated teaching interactions as well as providing structure for their children. 58 However, though mothers and fathers may have interaction styles that differ, the fact remains that many children in the United States are raised in households headed by mothers and may experience wide variability in contact with their biological fathers. 59 This fact, coupled with increasing acceptance and prevalence of families headed by same-sex parents, cautions against a return to the belief that to develop optimally, children require both fathers and mothers (known as the “essential father” hypothesis). 60

We must also recognize that nonparental primary caregivers may play a central role in the care and raising of young children. For example, the increasing number of grandparent-headed households means that more grandparents—with their own sets of strengths and challenges—are making health and wellness decisions for children and may require a unique set of supports from health care providers. 61 Even when not primary caregivers, many grandparents—especially maternal grandmothers—report being involved and influential in their grandchildren’s lives. 62 In fact, involvement of maternal grandmothers with grandchildren may buffer young children from the risks to their development posed by difficult temperament and harsh parenting by mothers. 63 A wider relational health perspective suggests that grandparents (both custodial and noncustodial) be considered as potential sources of support in children’s health and well-being.

Shifting demographics suggest that fathers, nonparental caregivers, and grandparents play an active and involved role in the lives of children. As providers, recognition of the range of relationships in which the child is embedded is critical. Examining potential biases around who is most knowledgeable or best equipped to care for children may help providers approach each adult who is involved in the child’s life as a potential partner in health promotion. 64

Coparenting Relationships

The recognition that children develop within relationships between multiple caregivers, including mothers, fathers, grandparents, and others, makes it critical to also consider the health of the relationships among these adults (ie, coparents) who share responsibility for raising particular children. 65 , 66 Whereas constructs such as marital quality or marital satisfaction focus on the intimate partner relationship, the coparenting relationship, although related, is separate and distinct. Coparenting reflects a wider range of relationship structures and processes specific to parenting. 67 , 68 For example, coparenting relationships occur among a variety of individuals who share responsibility for parenting, whether romantically involved or not, 65 , 69 such as same-sex parents, adoptive parents, divorced or never married parents, and mothers and maternal grandmothers. 70

Consistent with a family systems perspective, 8 better coparenting relationship quality is associated with children’s positive social and emotional development over and above the effects of both romantic relationship quality between parents (if present) and mothers’ and fathers’ parenting. 71 Notably, coparenting relationship quality among same-sex parents shows similar associations with children’s socioemotional development. 72 If supportive, coparenting relationships may help caregivers, especially fathers, promote children’s positive socioemotional development, 73 but undermining or conflictual coparenting relationships may have a detrimental effect on child development. For instance, although grandmother involvement may benefit children, conflict between mothers and grandmothers can be detrimental to children’s socioemotional development. 63 , 74 Thus, prevention and intervention programs have been developed to support effective relationships between coparents. 75 , 76 For example, Feinberg’s Family Foundations program targets couples expecting their first child and focuses on building strong coparenting relationships across the transition to parenthood 77 , 78 —a critical foundation for parent-child relational health.

Coparenting research highlights the role of supportive versus undermining coparenting for children’s development. Often, the extent to which coparents support or undermine one another stems from whether they share the same views on parenting goals and practices and have a similar perspective on the child’s development. Thus, when interacting with patients, we suggest inquiring about the extent of agreement versus disagreement among the adults who make decisions regarding the child’s health and development. For example, the primary custodial parent may emphasize healthy food choices and regular physical activity, whereas the nonresidential coparent may provide markedly different choices during visitation periods. Alternatively, one parent may have concerns about a child’s language or motor development, whereas a grandparent may continually emphasize that the child is “just fine.” These discrepancies in perceptions of typical versus atypical development may delay or interfere with prevention efforts, medical diagnosis, and treatment. Disagreements among multiple caregivers may create stress and tension within families, and challenges with coparenting can be addressed through prevention and intervention programs.

Parental Characteristics That Contribute to Parenting and Relational Health

Psychosocial resources and mental health.

Belsky’s early model of parenting competence suggests that multiple factors affect parenting and child outcomes, with parents’ psychosocial resources playing a prominent role. 3 Individual differences between parents in their personality characteristics affect the quality of their parenting. 79 In particular, higher openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness, and lower neuroticism has been related to more optimal parenting cognitions, practices, and behaviors, including parental warmth and support for autonomy. 79 - 81

For parents with common mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, the experience of parenting may be especially challenging. Maternal depression has been linked consistently with more negative and disengaged parenting behavior and lower engagement in healthy feeding and sleep practices. 82 Less research has considered fathers’ mental health in relation to their parenting, 83 although there has been a recent increase in attention to fathers’ antenatal and postnatal depression, 84 and fathers who experience postpartum depression demonstrate lower levels of developmentally appropriate positive engagement with their infant children. 83 Anxiety disorders in fathers as well as mothers have been linked with more overinvolved parenting behavior that does not foster age-appropriate independence in children. 85

Although prevalence rates suggest the importance of considering parental anxiety and depression, other mental health disorders should be considered as well. For example, for mothers diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, higher levels of negative affectivity as well as lower rates of effortful control 86 and sensitivity, and support for child autonomy 87 have been reported. Less maternal sensitivity has also been reported among mothers with obsessive compulsive disorder. 88

Screening for parental mental health concerns from pregnancy (or from pregnancy planning) throughout the child’s development is consistent with a relational health approach. Beyond screening, health care providers can become aware of evidence-based treatments that may support healthy outcomes in children by supporting maternal mental health and parenting skills. 89 For example, the attachment-based, group intervention Mom Power, which emphasizes parenting, self-care, and engagement in treatment, holds promise for supporting positive outcomes for children by supporting maternal mental health and parenting competence. 90 With increased knowledge of evidence-based treatments for fathers’ mental health and parenting, we may be able to move beyond a focus on mothers to provide all parents with a stronger support system and resource base for effective parenting.

Parental Developmental History and Adverse Experiences in Childhood

According to Belsky’s model of the determinants of parenting, a parent’s psychosocial resources stem from their developmental history. 3 The experience of adversity and toxic stress during development may affect brain architecture , 91 a term used to convey how early experiences help build the structural foundation for healthy brain development. Under conditions of sustained, persistent stress such as maltreatment or neglect, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis may be affected, contributing to atypical diurnal patterns of cortisol and increased risk over the course of development. 92 As our understanding of the impact of toxic stress on children has grown, the focus on understanding patterns of intergenerational transmission of impaired parenting has grown as well. Experiences of adversity and toxic stress in one generation are linked to poorer parenting and developmental outcomes in the next generation. 93 Thus, improving the quality of the caregiving environment as early as possible may help improve stress responding in young children. 92

Foundational work on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as predictors of physical, relational, and behavioral health has contributed to a growing understanding of the dose-response relation between experiences of adversity in early childhood (conceptualized as exposure to abuse and household dysfunction) and well-being in adulthood 94 as well as the experience of parenting. 95 Pregnant women reporting higher levels of ACEs in early childhood, for example, exhibit more hostile parenting toward their own infants; this pattern of hostile parenting then increases the child’s risk for poorer developmental outcomes. 96

In response to growing recognition of the impact of adversity and toxic stress within families, in 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement recommending education for health professionals on ACEs along with 2-generational screening for ACEs within families. 97 , 98 By screening for parental and child ACEs, health providers may be able to provide referrals to trauma-informed therapeutic supports within the community that can help build or rebuild relational health.

Yet, in the face of adversity, the presence of individuals who are connected to the child, such as family members, can help mitigate its negative effects. 4 In addition to exploring multiple factors related to the experience of adversity, a relational health perspective suggests the importance of identifying and growing supportive connections. For example, the neurosequential model of therapeutics focuses on relational health and connectedness with others. 99 Results from recent work with this model highlight the importance of promoting the health, safety, and positivity of the parent-child relationship.

Although pediatric health care providers are aware of the impact of ACEs on parenting and developmental outcomes, additional research, education, and resources are necessary to support practitioners in identifying and addressing these impacts within families. 100 The limitations and potential cost-benefit analysis of screening for ACEs must also be considered because screening without provision of adequate referrals to evidence-based treatments may undermine the possible value of the screen. 101 Moreover, identification of appropriate screening tools for ACEs remains an important consideration. Focusing on the experiences of adversity as an ACE score that relates to poorer health outcomes may confuse correlation with causation; thus, to best inform policy and practice, factors such as timing of adversity, the overall pattern of stress, and the absence or availability of protective factors must be considered. 4 Yet through increased awareness of ACEs (both the parent’s and the child’s) as well as other psychosocial risk factors for impaired relational health, professionals can widen their lens of assessment when interacting with parents and children during medical visits.

Child Characteristics That Contribute to Parenting and Parent-Child Relational Health

Another set of key factors in the quality of parenting and parent-child relationships involves characteristics of the child. Recognizing the bidirectional nature of relationships between parents and children, Bornstein noted that “caregiving is a two-way street.” 102 Although early literature emphasized the parents’ impact on the child, a relational health approach to development suggests that we consider child contributions to parenting as well as to the overall parent-child relationship. Among a number of child characteristics that may affect parent-child relational health, research has focused on child temperament and age as well as children with special health care needs.

Temperament

Although early research on temperament emphasized the child’s inborn characteristics (eg, rhythmicity, mood) and temperament types such as easy, difficult, and slow to warm up, 103 our current understanding of temperament reflects the interplay between biological and environmental factors over the course of an individual’s development. 104 Definitions of temperament typically include individual differences in activity, emotionality, attention, and self-regulation. 104 However, particularly relevant to the experience of parenting is the temperamental characteristic of reactivity, defined as the extent to which the child is predisposed to experiencing strong negative and/or positive emotions, which may reflect the sensitivity of the nervous system to environmental stimuli. 105

Although difficult child temperament has long been viewed as a risk factor for poorer parent-child relational health, 106 more recent theory and research on the concept of differential susceptibility suggest that children with difficult or highly reactive temperaments may be more susceptible to both the negative and positive effects of the parenting environment. 105 , 107 For example, children with more difficult temperaments, reflecting higher levels of reactivity, may be particularly susceptible to the detrimental effects of negative parenting. 108 In contrast, for highly reactive children, the experience of more positive parenting is associated with fewer child behavior problems 109 and greater social competence. 110 Parenting intervention studies have further shown that more reactive children appear to benefit more from experimentally induced positive changes in parenting. 111 Thus, it is important for practitioners to shift their perspectives on “difficult” children from vulnerability to opportunity and support parents in adopting a similar view. Indeed, to the extent that the biological parents of a highly reactive child may share similar underlying genetic sensitivities, 112 these parents may be especially responsive to practitioners’ efforts, just as their children are particularly responsive to their parenting.

Because the demands and challenges of parenting change as a function of children’s age, parents must have opportunities to gain research-informed recommendations for supporting relational health with their children from birth throughout the life span. For example, within early childhood, toddlers’ and preschoolers’ growing autonomy and self-awareness creates new demands and opportunities for both parent and child. Thus, supporting parents in reflecting on the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs regarding their child’s increasing autonomy could be one strategy for supporting relational health as children move through the early childhood years. Moreover, the roles of various parenting practices for supporting children’s self-regulatory capabilities may differ across early childhood, with responsiveness most critical in infancy and other forms of support becoming more critical during the preschool years. 113 Research must, therefore, identify which practices are most relevant, at which age, 113 and for which outcome of interest. Doing so will help practitioners provide targeted support to families, based on parents’ concerns regarding their child’s particular social and emotional strengths and challenges.

Special Health Care Needs

Children with special health care needs represent a growing demographic, 114 and expert recommendations continue to promote early detection in primary care. 115 , 116 Just as providers should consider the parent factors contributing to relational health, the child’s contribution to parent-child relationships is paramount. Within the family context, a child with a developmental disability and/or special health care needs may require disproportionate resources and time compared with neurotypical siblings. 117 The child’s condition may translate into added health care costs and increased stress for parents along with decreased access to social support and leisure activities within the community. 118 , 119 For example, a systematic review of parenting stress in the face of chronic child illness indicated that among parents who were parenting a child with chronic illness, significantly higher levels of parenting stress were found; in turn, this stress was related to lower levels of psychological adjustment among parents and children. 120 Among parents of children with autism specture disorder (ASD), higher levels of parenting stress and psychological distress have also been reported. 121 , 122 These higher levels of parental stress and distress may, in turn, affect parental availability and sensitivity, thus affecting relational health.

In light of the evidence on child contributions to parenting and developmental outcomes, it seems important to consider the “what” and “how” of child contributions to relational health. Identifying the ways in which child characteristics influence and interact with parenting behaviors and relational health may provide practitioners with the tools and questions necessary to shift from a focus on the effects of parenting on children to also consider how parenting has been influenced by the child and how the overall health of the relationship has been shaped by both relational partners.

Contextual and Process Variables That May Affect Relational Health

Although the bidirectional nature of parent-child relationships underscores the importance of considering parent and child contributions to relational health, a family systems approach, coupled with a bioecological approach, suggests that the social and contextual contexts in which parent-child relationships are embedded should be considered as well.

Parent-Child Feeding Practices

The promising protective role of healthy parent-child relationships in the development of obesity 123 in early childhood is also evident, perhaps via links with more optimal self-regulation in young children. 124 , 125 For example, theoretical models 125 and research 126 on the development of appetite self-regulation and positive physical activity habits, 127 , 128 which are critical to weight-related health throughout the life span, highlight the important role of parenting. Parental behaviors such as permissiveness or indulgence have been associated with weight status and obesity in childhood. More specifically, allowing children too much freedom regarding food choices in society’s obesogenic food environment can increase children’s risk for obesity. 123 Similarly, unrestricted, unmonitored screen time has also been associated with unhealthy weight status. 129 Yet the question remains to what extent these cycles occur within families, whereby parents’ lack of control over their own food choices and screen time contribute to unhealthy weight status for their children and the unhealthy weight status of children contributes to parents’ continued struggles with their own food choices and activity levels. Thus, a family-level relational approach to understanding risks for obesity may be particularly advantageous.

Given that parents’ attitudes and beliefs can shape a range of parenting behaviors related to health and wellness, including feeding practices, exploring relational correlates and predictors of feeding practices beginning in infancy seems prudent. Parents’ feeding practices provide a unique window into parent-child relationship health, because from birth, feeding makes up a critical part of parents’ daily interactions with young children. Decisions regarding breastfeeding and/or bottle-feeding can cause considerable stress for parents. 130 And although children’s eating behavior emerges early and is relatively stable over time, eating is influenced more by external factors across development. 131

Mothers who use food to soothe their distressed infants or toddlers have reported lower parenting self-efficacy and higher child negativity. 132 Using food to soothe was also linked with higher weight status among children, particularly for children who were perceived as having more negative temperaments. 132 Among preschoolers, parents’ use of food for the purpose of emotion regulation was associated with children’s increased intake of sweets when not hungry, a pattern that may reflect the early origins of children’s emotional eating. 133

Eating behaviors and nutrition are important components of lifestyle medicine. In promoting healthy eating behavior and weight outcomes for children, health care professionals can consider how parents’ attitudes may shape their feeding practices—above and beyond a child’s weight status—and how dyadic and family-level interactions around food may support or undermine relational health. From birth, providers can recognize that decisions regarding feeding (eg, breast and/or formula; homemade meals versus fast food) may be multiply determined and best understood through a relational health lens, where parent and child factors are viewed as contributing to parenting practices, practices that may differ from recommended best practices for promoting child health outcomes.

The Household Environment: Family Chaos, Technology, and Social Media Use

The home environment represents an important context for parent-child relational health, including the quality of parenting as well as children’s well-being and health. 134 - 138 Recent research, focused on household chaos, has highlighted the role of disorder/disorganization 139 and instability/turbulence 140 for understanding parenting quality and family well-being. Lower levels of household chaos (evidenced by greater organization, stability, and predictability) are associated with higher-quality parenting behavior than home environments characterized as noisy, crowded, unpredictable, and disorganized. 138 Among preschoolers, recent evidence suggests that higher rates of household chaos are also associated with higher screen use. 141

In fact, parents’ and children’s increasing engagement with, and reliance on, technology and social media suggest the need for providers to consider technology and social media as interactive partners. For example, Facebook may provide new parents with an important source of social capital, 142 and parents report using the internet to gain information about pediatric health. 143 , 144 Yet parents (and grandparents) do not report universally positive effects of their technology use. For example, parents may experience a range of internal tensions surrounding their use of mobile technology, such as cognitive, emotional, and relationship tension. 145 Researchers are documenting how technology may interrupt the flow of interaction patterns between children and their parents—a concept known as technoference. 146 For example, higher levels of child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems have been reported by mothers who also reported higher levels of technoference in their interactions with their children. 146

Supporting parents in identifying, reducing, or coping with household chaos, as well as technoference, may be promising avenues for supporting relational health. Because the experience of chaos in the home environment often co-occurs with poverty 139 as well as parental mental health symptoms, 147 screening and intervention approaches aimed at identifying and addressing the multiple co-occurring factors that relate to family chaos may be warranted. Moreover, gauging the perceived impact of technology and social media use on parent-child relational health may be an important area of inquiry for health practitioners.

Cultural Context and Relational Health

Understanding relational health requires us to also consider the impact of race, ethnicity, and culture on parent-child relationships; accordingly, consideration of diversity has moved to the forefront of our current research and practice efforts. Although broad parenting goals are remarkably similar across diverse cultures, 102 the processes by which parents in varying cultural contexts seek to achieve these goals may differ. For example, some scholars have suggested that the concept of sensitivity, the primary determinant of secure attachment according to attachment theorists, may be biased toward more individualistic cultures because it is focused on meeting the child’s individual needs. 148 Moreover, the meaning of parenting constructs such as controlling behavior may vary across cultures. For example, Asian American parents may emphasize strict control of children as part of culturally embedded approaches to parenting, which are not equivalent to western notions of harsh/controlling parenting and do not appear to have negative effects on their children’s development. 149 , 150

These debates can support practitioners in reflecting on how their own beliefs about what is the “best” kind of parenting to promote relational health and positive child outcomes may be shaping their messaging for parents. For example, among immigrant families, attention to acculturation—the process of adapting to a new culture—rather than parenting behavior, per se, may provide a window into relational health. For example, acculturation may happen at different rates for children and parents, and greater discrepancies in the level of acculturation may contribute to increased parent-child conflict. 151

The roles of culture, race, and ethnicity in parenting practices are particularly apparent with respect to discipline practices. For example, higher rates of corporal punishment, including spanking, are generally reported by African American parents, in comparison to Hispanic or white parents, 152 although recent evidence suggests similar endorsement of spanking by African American and Hispanic mothers, along with longitudinal associations between endorsement of spanking and children’s later internalizing and externalizing behaviors. 153 Evidence continues to highlight the negative impact of corporal punishment on children 154 and the AAP’s 2018 statement on effective discipline emphasizes the need for positive alternatives to corporal punishment and spanking. 155 And, although many parents report spanking their young children, these same parents may also be looking for nonphysical, effective alternatives for guiding their children’s behavior. 156

Understanding how cultural beliefs and practices shape parents’ expectations and socialization goals may help us better define what relational health is, both within and across diverse families. Health care professionals can be a source of guidance and support for parents to choose discipline strategies that align with research and support parent-child relational health. When practitioners recognize the larger context in which parents’ discipline decisions are embedded, they may more readily identify the beliefs, histories, and socialization goals that underlie families’ discipline practices. Health providers can recognize parents’ concerns regarding children’s behavior and provide culturally responsive, research-informed, preventive recommendations for helping parents identify alternative strategies to the use of corporal punishment and physical discipline.

Reducing Risks to Relational Health: Screening and Referral

Given that the parent-child relationship is critical for healthy development, health providers must adopt a dyadic-level, family systemic, and culturally informed approach to screening, referring, and treating parent-child dyads to integrate research with practice. Equipping health professionals with knowledge of relational health may provide a solid foundation for supporting parent-child relational health from birth. For example, evidence from research with pediatric residents suggests that training in a parent-child relational framework was effective in supporting residents’ observational skills and knowledge of child development. 157

An emphasis on transactional associations within families further underscores the importance of screening and early intervention to support child and parental well-being and use of positive parenting practices. 10 Commonly used assessments in parent-child attachment research, such as the Strange Situation Procedure 158 Attachment Q-Set, 159 are labor-intensive and were not developed as clinically relevant screening tools. Moreover, even when insecurity in the parent-child relationship is suspected, access to attachment-based interventions (ie, VIPP-SD, ABC) may be extremely limited.

Whereas much of the research literature on early parent-child relationships (typically mother-child relationships) has focused on attachment, recent work highlights the dyadic-level construct of emotional connection for understanding early parent-child relational health. The development of the Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) 160 reflects an effort to provide practitioners with a rapid and valid screening tool for parent-child relational health from birth to 5 years. The WECS considers the presence or absence of 4 mutual behaviors that may serve to promote and maintain emotional connection within a parent-child dyad: attraction, facial responsiveness, vocal responsiveness, and sensitivity/reciprocity. Based on the overall interaction, a score of EC+ (connected) or EC− (not connected) is assigned to the dyad.

The WECS developed out of work with the Family Nurture Intervention, which seeks to support the development of emotional connection and coregulation via the provision of calming sessions that focus on the sensory experiences of touch, vocal soothing, and skin-to-skin contact. 161 - 163 Results from an RCT study indicated that mothers and infants participating in the Family Nurture Intervention showed improvements in face-to-face dyadic interaction, including increased frequency and quality of mothers’ touch and for boys, infant’s vocal affect and gaze. 164

Emotional connection, as assessed by the WECS in infancy, has been associated with healthier autonomic responding among infants born prematurely 165 as well as with fewer internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in a full-term, longitudinal sample. 166 Thus, emerging evidence suggests that the WECS holds promise for screening, anticipatory guidance, and referral of early parent-child relationships that may benefit from support and intervention to promote healthy regulatory functioning and decrease risk for later child behavior problems. Efforts are under way to train a range of professionals—from pediatric residents to infant mental health practitioners and home visitors—to be reliable raters of parent-child relational health using the WECS.

In families with elevated risk for maltreatment, the automated self-report survey, the CARTS (Computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen), reflects a relational approach to the assessment of trauma in childhood. 167 , 168 The CARTS considers what trauma occurred and assesses caregivers’ emotional availability, along with responses to the reported maltreatment. In contrast, the SEEK program (Safe Environment for Every Kid) focuses on risk factors related to child maltreatment, including parental depression, stress, and substance abuse. 168 , 169 Thus, the SEEK program may benefit pediatric primary care professionals through its focus on psychosocial stress within families, which if addressed early, may prevent child maltreatment.

Notably, SEEK embodies a relational health perspective by acknowledging the parent’s love for the child as a pathway to healthy outcomes for both parent and child as well as by acknowledging the relationships between health professionals and parents as protective factors for parents and children. 169 , 170 For example, part of the SEEK program is the SEEK Parent Questionnaire, which begins by empathetically validating the sometimes challenging everyday experience of being a parent while simultaneously offering support to parents dealing with concerning circumstances. SEEK also aims to support relational health through the REAP approach, which encourages health care providers to Reflect-Empathize-Assess-and Plan with parents.

Intervention approaches that incorporate mindfulness practices, such as the 9-week Mindful Parenting course tested in the Netherlands, also hold promise for supporting relational health within families. Mindful Parenting aims to increase awareness, decrease parental stress, and improve coparenting. 171 Both parents participating in the program and their children report reductions in internalizing/externalizing symptomology. The interpersonal focus of mindfulness-based interventions supports healthy parent-child relationships through increased awareness of parent-child interactions as well as positive changes in both child and parent functioning. 172

Summary and Conclusions

Beyond attachment theory, which emphasizes parental sensitivity and responsivity as a primary determinant of attachment security, a relational health science approach offers a wider lens for understanding how parent-child relationships may affect children’s development. A relational health approach recognizes both partners’ contributions to the establishment and maintenance of relational processes and highlights the potential value of the health care provider as a relational partner for parents and children. Our focus here was on socioemotional development; future work will consider how a relational health framework can be applied to a range of parent-child health decisions from vaccinations and sleep behaviors, to physical activity, and medication use.

Although we view primary care as a valuable context for supporting relational health, continued development and validation of screening tools for relational health that are suitable for clinical and applied contexts remain an important goal along with more widespread availability of effective interventions. Moreover, given the existing demands on health care providers, we recognize that a relational health perspective on development may create additional demands on providers. Perhaps a necessary first step is a shift in perspective, more than a shift in practice. By viewing the parent-child relationship as part of the “patient” and, therefore, part of health promotion, the long-term gains may be worth the initial investment.

By networking with community resources, health care providers can build a pipeline of referrals for parents as a component of pediatric and primary care. Offering parent-friendly pamphlets, information sheets, and face-to-face communication that reflects a relational health view on development may help parents see themselves as partners in relational health, rather than as the cause of their child’s mental health, behavioral, or developmental problems. Such negative attributions may contribute to feelings of shame and guilt—feelings that may undermine parenting self-efficacy and parents’ engagement in children’s wellness and treatment. The AAP’s recent call for pediatricians to partner with parents in supporting healthy outcomes through the sharing of information regarding child development and parenting 155 reflects the promise of a relational health approach.

Returning to the opening quote from Bowlby, we suggest that health care providers are in a strong position to serve children by valuing their parents and viewing child development through the lens of relational health. Perhaps by uncovering who that person is—the one who is “irrationally crazy” about the child, as Bronfenbrenner advised—professionals can help cultivate and reinforce that connection. And in its absence, we can seek to identify ways to build a web of relational health for the child and for the parent, a web that can support each partner in service to the relationship.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ariana Shahinfar, Robert Ludwig, and Mark Lopez for feedback on an earlier version of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical Approval: Not applicable, because this article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

Informed Consent: Not applicable, because this article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

Trial Registration: Not applicable, because this article does not contain any clinical trials.

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

An official publication of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

• Previously known as the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology (2022 2-year impact factor: 3.6).
• The official journal of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (ISRCAP).
• Publishes studies with a strong theoretical framework and a diversity of methods, with an emphasis on empirical studies of the major forms of psychopathology found in childhood disorders.
• Focuses on the epidemiology, etiology, assessment, treatment, prognosis, and developmental course of childhood and adolescent psychopathology.
• Features research highlighting risk and protective factors, ecology, and correlates of children's emotional, social, and behavior problems.
• Joshua Langberg

Societies and partnerships

• International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (ISRCAP)

Latest issue

Volume 52, Issue 8

Latest articles

Testing parenting self-esteem as an indicator of mothers and fathers who are at risk for aversive responses to disruptive child behavior.

• Sierra R. Hightower-Henson
• Brian T. Wymbs

Pandemic Paranoia Scale for Adolescents (PPS-A): An Initial Psychometric Evaluation and Prevalence Study of Adolescents in the United States and United Kingdom

• Ana Rabasco
• Julia Browne
• Brandon A. Gaudiano

Educator Knowledge of Childhood Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

• Georgette E. Fleming
• Antonia L. Boulton
• Eva R. Kimonis

Entering the Classroom: Do Newcomers Experience More Peer Victimization than Their Established Peers?

• Essi-Lotta Tenhunen
• Sarah Malamut
• Christina Salmivalli

Examining ADHD and Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome Symptoms in Relation to Food Insecurity in Early Adolescents

• Cathrin D. Green
• Andrew C. Martinez
• Stephen P. Becker

Journal updates

New associate editors announcement, rcap special issue call for papers.

Bringing Technology to Justice Involved Youth: Applying Virtual Reality, Smartphone Apps, and Wearables to Assessment and Treatment

Primum non nocere : Understanding the Role of Harm in Treatment for Youth Mental Health Concerns

Interview with the Authors: Dr. Qiong Wu and Karina Jalapa

Journal information.

• Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences
• Google Scholar
• Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST)
• OCLC WorldCat Discovery Service
• Social Science Citation Index
• TD Net Discovery Service
• UGC-CARE List (India)

Rights and permissions

Editorial policies

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Sweepstakes
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

Overview of Child Psychology and Development

There Are Three Major Contexts in Children's Psychology

• Major Contexts
• Influential Factors

Child psychology is one of the many branches of psychology . This particular branch focuses on the mind and behavior of children from prenatal development through adolescence. Child psychology deals not only with how children grow physically, but also seeks to better understand their mental, emotional, and social development as well.

Children's psychology encompasses the five stages of child development: newborn, infant, toddler, preschool, and school age.

History of Child Psychology

Historically, children were often viewed simply as smaller versions of adults. When Jean Piaget suggested that children actually think differently than adults, Albert Einstein proclaimed that the discovery was "so simple that only a genius could have thought of it."

Today, psychologists recognize that child psychology is unique and complex, but many differ in terms of the unique perspective they take when approaching development.

Experts differ in their responses to some of the bigger questions in child psychology , such as whether early experiences matter more than later ones or whether nature or nurture plays a greater role in development. Because childhood plays such an important role in the course of the rest of life, it is little wonder why this topic has become such an important one within psychology, sociology, and education.

Experts focus not only on the many influences that contribute to normal child development but also on various factors that might lead to psychological problems during childhood. Self-esteem, school, parenting, social pressures, and other subjects are all of tremendous interest to child psychologists who strive to help kids develop and grow in ways that are healthy and appropriate.

Major Contexts in Children's Psychology

If you are like most people, you probably think about the internal factors that influence how a child grows, such as genetics and personal characteristics. However, development involves much more than the influences that arise from within an individual. Environmental factors such as social relationships and the culture in which we live also play essential roles.

There are three major contexts that we need to consider in our analysis of child psychology.

Cultural Context

The culture a child lives in contributes a set of values, customs, shared assumptions, and ways of living that influence development throughout the lifespan. Culture may play a role in how children relate to their parents, the type of education they receive, and the type of childcare that is provided.

Social Context

Relationships with peers and adults have an effect on how children think, learn, and develop. Families, schools, and peer groups all make up an important part of the social context.

Socioeconomic Context

Social class can also play a major role in child development. Socioeconomic status (often abbreviated as SES), is based upon a number of different factors including how much education people have, how much money they earn, the job they hold, and where they live.

Children raised in households with a high socioeconomic status tend to have greater access to opportunities, while those from households with lower socioeconomic status may have less access to such things as health care, quality nutrition, and education. Such factors can have a major impact on child psychology.

Remember, all three of these contexts are constantly interacting. While a child may have fewer opportunities due to a low socioeconomic status, enriching social relationships and strong cultural ties may help correct this imbalance.

Factors Influencing Child Psychology

Child psychology encompasses a wide range of topics, from the genetic influences on behavior to the social pressures on development. The following are just some of the major subjects that are essential to the study of child psychology:

• Cognitive development
• Environmental influences
• Gender Roles
• Personality development
• Prenatal development
• Social Growth
• Sexual Development

Child psychologists, for example, might look at which childcare settings and practices lead to the best psychological outcomes or they might work with kids to help them develop growth mindsets . 

Child psychologists may specialize in helping kids cope with specific developmental concerns, or they may take a more general approach. In either case, these professionals strive to help kids overcome potential problems and grow in ways that lead to healthy outcomes.

A Word From Verywell

Understanding what makes kids tick is an enormous task, so the study of child psychology is both wide and deep. The goal is to study the many influences that combine and interact to help make kids who they are and to use that information to improve parenting, education, child care,  psychotherapy , and other areas focused on benefiting children.

By having a solid understanding of how children grow, think, and behave, parents and professionals working with children can be better prepared to help the kids in their care.

American Psychological Association. Clinical child and adolescent psychology .

Chalmers D, Hunt L (Eds). University Teaching in Focus: A Learning-Centered Approach ; 2013.

Goswami UC.  Child Psychology: A Very Short Introduction . First edition. Oxford University Press; 2014.

Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8: Deepening and Broadening the Foundation for Success; Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Institute of Medicine; National Research Council; Allen LR, Kelly BB, editors. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation . Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2015 Jul 23. 4, Child Development and Early Learning.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

14 emerging trends

Vol. 53 No. 1 Print version: page 42

In 2022, psychological science will play an increasingly outsize role in the debate about how to solve the world’s most intractable challenges. Human behavior is at the heart of many of the biggest issues with which we grapple: inequality, climate change, the future of work, health and well-being, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation. Psychologists have been asked not only to have a seat at the table but to take the lead on these issues and more (See the full list of emerging trends ).

Psychologists are being called upon to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI): Amid a nationwide reckoning on race—and a 71% increase in EDI roles at organizations over the past 5 years—psychologists are increasingly being tapped to serve as chief diversity officers and act in other similar roles. But the field is also at an inflection point, being called upon to be more introspective about its own diversity in terms of the people who choose to become psychologists, the people who are the subjects of psychological research, and the people who have access to psychological services.

Psychologists are now the most requested experts by the mainstream media. As our culture increasingly sees mental health as an important piece of overall well-being, psychologists are being called to serve in a wider array of roles, including in entertainment, sports, advocacy, and technology.

On the technology front, the delivery and data collection of psychological services is gaining increased interest from venture capitalists. Private equity firms are expected to pour billions of dollars into mental health projects this year—psychologists working on these efforts say greater investments will help bring mental health care to millions of underserved patients.

That said, the urgent need for mental health services will be a trend for years to come. That is especially true among children: Mental health–related emergency department visits have increased 24% for children between ages 5 and 11 and 31% for those ages 12 to 17 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That trend will be exacerbated by the climate crisis, the destructive effects of which will fall disproportionately on communities that are already disadvantaged by social, economic, and political oppression.

Reporters and editors for the Monitor spoke with more than 100 psychologists to compile our annual trends report, which you’ll find on the following pages. As always, we appreciate your feedback and insights— email us .

The rise of psychologists

Reworking work

Open science is surging

Prominent issues in health care

Mental health, meet venture capital

Kicking stigma to the curb

New frontiers in neuroscience

Millions of women have left the workforce. Psychology can help bring them back

Children’s mental health is in crisis

Burnout and stress are everywhere

Climate change intensifies

Big data ups its reach

Psychology’s influence on public health messaging is growing

Telehealth proves its worth

Trent Spiner is editor in chief of the Monitor . Follow him on Twitter: @TrentSpiner

Recommended Reading

Contact apa, you may also like.

Understanding Child Development

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

Human development is influenced by, but not entirely determined by, our parents and our genes . Children may have very different personalities, and different strengths and weaknesses, than the generation that preceded them. Caregivers should pay attention to their children's distinct traits and the pace of their development, and not assume that the approach to parenting that worked for their mothers and fathers will be equally successful in their own families. Parents, and the home environments they create, can also have an important influence on a child's development; in fact, a child's home environment can affect the ways that certain genetic traits express themselves, or if they will at all. Caregivers who have a consistent approach, who are warm, and who can give children a sense of security, generally have the most positive influence on a child's development; meeting a child's physical and dietary needs are also essential as research finds that childhood neglect can disrupt development, perhaps even more than abuse does. But parents are far from the only influencers in a child's life: Siblings, grandparents, neighbors, peers, celebrities, and policymakers all may contribute to who a young person becomes as well.

Healthy development can be upended by abuse and neglect, which may disrupt cognitive and language development and socialization and particularly hamper a child's ability to develop trust or self-esteem , or to form healthy relationships with others. The effects of abuse or neglect often linger for years, but they alone do not determine a child's future. Many children raised in difficult environments develop resilience and grow to thrive as adults.

For more, see Adverse Experiences .

The speedy physical and psychological changes that children undergo from birth through adolescence can leave parents and caregivers wondering how best to support them. The process of child development includes everything from sensory awareness and fine motor skills to language acquisition and socialization. Parents and medical professionals typically rely on developmental milestones, such as when a child learns to speak or read, to track their growth relative to their peers. These milestones are important markers but parents must keep in mind that every child develops at their own pace, and while one may take their first steps earlier than most, or say their first words later than most, neither is likely to affect their ultimate capabilities. However, when the benchmarks suggest that a child may be significantly delayed, it is important to consult a doctor who can identify developmental disorders and begin treatment as early as possible. For more, see Developmental Disorders and Delays .

It is widely believed that a child's personality and intelligence are "locked in" by age 3, but there is no deadline for human social or cognitive development and the brain develops throughout one's life. But decades of research in developmental psychology, pediatrics, and neuroscience have converged on the conclusion that the first five years are especially critical. During these years, children begin to explore their environment, learn verbal and reasoning skills, socialize with others, and, eventually, take steps toward asserting independence from their family. Other research has led to expert guidance on how parents and caregivers can manage a child's expectations, and their own, and nurture their best qualities. For more, see Cognitive Development and Social Skills .

Children have varying physical and emotional needs, depending on their age, personality, and developmental stage. Over the past several decades, the age of puberty has been dropping for many young people, bringing an increasingly early end to childhood. Both genetic and environmental factors influence the onset of puberty, and observers believe that its early onset may to some degree reflect the stresses a child has experienced.

For more on specific stages of development, see:

• Early Childhood
• School-Age Children
• Adolescence

Domain-general cognitive capabilities are linked with children's math performance, but does training these skills in isolation lead to meaningful improvements in math learning?

Kids who are fierce about being in charge often engage in "equalizing"-insisting that you owe them something when they agree to cooperate with a task or direction.

Each of us has a unique sensory profile that "fits" some situations better than others. Autistic sensory profiles tend to "fit" less often, but accommodations and adaptations help.

Empowering a child's voice certainly sounds like a good idea, but this virtuous notion can backfire.

There are a variety of ways in which parents can help children make healthy food choices starting early in infancy. Here are a few research-based suggestions.

Forget crunchy parenting, curling dads, and tiger moms. Kids need rules, autonomy, and love. Kids also need to be seen for who they are.

In exploring different traumatic experiences, it becomes clear developmental trauma and childhood trauma, as well as relational, complex, and attachment trauma, are different.

Simplifying and clarifying donor conception processes enhances family connections, prioritizes children's well-being, and fosters meaningful relationships with donor relatives.

Sean Wang's debut feature "Didi" provides a layered look at Asian American boyhood and interiority, complete with cringe and dissociation. It's a great companion to "Inside Out 2."

Do you know someone who is always trying to please you? Help break harmful patterns by learning the difference between trauma-induced people-pleasing and healthy generosity.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Sticking up for yourself is no easy task. But there are concrete skills you can use to hone your assertiveness and advocate for yourself.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

The Thoughtful Parent

A blog that makes child development approachable.

50 Best Child Psychology Blogs

Parenting Research · August 23, 2023

Sneak peek: Our parenting journey often involves a lot of questions about how to make the best decisions for our children. These are some of the best child psychology blogs I’ve found to help discover research-based insights.

When most of us started on our parenting journey, we had no idea how much we would rely upon child psychology blogs to inform and inspire us.

For many of us, child psychology blogs, parenting blogs , and other online resources guide us through the ups and downs of parenting as much as physical books. I’ve rounded up some of my favorite blogs to share as a resource for those of us who strive to make informed, intentional parenting decisions.

Although opinions from friends and family can be helpful in making parenting decisions, it’s equally helpful to turn to the research that is presented in these blogs. While opinions can pull us in many different directions, good quality child psychology research can inform us in an objective way that opinions cannot provide.

Related post: How Understanding Child Development Research Makes Us Better Parents

These blogs provide insight from research in helpful, easy-to-read articles. I consider many of these bloggers to be my online friends and resources I often turn to as well.

50 Best Child Psychology Blogs to Enlighten and Inform

• Nurture and Thrive
• Institute of Child Psychology
• The Mom Psychologist
• The Art and Science of Mom
• Imperfect Families
• Child in Mind , Claudia M. Gold
• The Neuroscience of Parenting , Erin Clabaugh
• AT Parenting Survival
• Extremely Good Parenting
• Tools of Growth
• Parents with Confidence
• A Fine Parent
• Thriving Parents
• Peaceful Parenting with Sarah Rosensweet
• Aha Parenting
• Childproof Parenting
• Debbie Zeichner , Parent Coach
• Alison Smith Parenting Coaching
• Elevating Childcare with Janet Lansbury
• Michele Borba
• Regarding Baby
• Respectful Parent
• Raised Good
• Not Just Cute
• Effective Mommy
• Science of Mom
• Lemon Lime Adventures
• Parenting From the Heart
• Hand in Hand Parenting
• Tilt Parenting
• Self-Sufficient Kids
• Lerner Child Development
• Curious Neuron
• Zero to Three
• Child Mind Institute
• Authentic Parenting
• Family Education
• The BabyShrink
• Parenting for Brain
• Nurtured Neurons
• Dr. Lynne Kenney
• Hey Sigmund
• Parenting Translator
• Dr. Vanessa Lapointe
• Dr. Lisa Damour

I hope these blogs will serve as wonderful resources for you, as they have for me.

Want to delve more into child psychology for parents and get updates on the latest research in the field (in a parent-friendly format)?

Join our newsletter and that’s what you’ll get! Child development research in helpful, actionable articles:

5 Common Child Development Myths…Debunked

Sign up and receive your free cheat sheet

**Plus you’ll receive ongoing updates on child development and parenting

We hate SPAM too. Your email will be kept safe and secure.

Get Instant Access

Loading…

Check your inbox for the cheat sheet

Books from these Blog Authors

Perfect for Pinning:

Amy Webb, Ph.D.

Writer and mom of two who brings academic child development and parenting information into the lives of ordinary parents who can use it in their daily lives.

Reader Interactions

child psychologist says

July 29, 2012 at 12:26 am

I was in search of resources child psychologist . Here at your blog my search has been completed . Thanks buddy!

Grid Mom says

December 15, 2012 at 2:24 pm

I recently started researching information on child development for my site, and was delighted to find this collection. I'll be back frequently.

Institute of Child Psychology says

January 30, 2023 at 12:51 pm

Thank you for sharing your expertise as a psychologist for children. Your insights on child behavior and development are very valuable and can help many parents better understand and support their children. Keep up the great work!

Amy Webb, Ph.D. says

January 30, 2023 at 8:57 pm

Thanks for the kind comment. I love your work and I can’t believe I left you off this list! I’ve just added you to this list. I follow you on IG and love your posts.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

'Curious Conversations' podcast: Rosanna Breaux talks about navigating back-to-school emotions

• Travis Williams

12 Aug 2024

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Copy address link to clipboard

Rosanna Breaux joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about the challenges and emotions children may experience during the transition back to school. The discussion includes red flags to look for as well as coping skills and support parents and caregivers can provide to help their children navigate the school year. The conversation touches on the impact of recent bans on students having individual smart devices in schools.

About Breaux

Breaux is assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and director of the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on the social, emotional, and academic functioning of children and adolescents, particularly those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. She is also interested in understanding the role parents play in shaping children and adolescent's social-emotional development with a focus on emotion regulation.

Your browser does not support iframes. Link to iframe content: https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/3DIpK1kEnNwcanV09WMRNQ?utm_source=generator&theme=0

Three takeaways 

Anxiety is a common emotion associated with the return to school, but major changes in behavior or emotions may indicate that a child is struggling with the transition.

Establishing routines and healthy habits, such as consistent bedtimes and nutritious meals, can help children adjust to the school year as well as teaching them coping skills, such as deep breathing.

Having at least one friend or ally in the lunchroom can increase a child's likeability among other peers and help that child feel more comfortable.

Psychologist offers tips for parents and schools to help address bullying

Rosanna Breaux named Jerry L. Hulick Faculty Fellow for Special Needs, Disabilities, and Inclusion

Seed grants fuel multidisciplinary, community-engaged mental health research

About the podcast

"Curious Conversations" is a series of free-flowing conversations with Virginia Tech researchers that take place at the intersection of world-class research and everyday life. Produced and hosted by Virginia Tech writer and editor Travis Williams, university researchers share their expertise and motivations as well as the practical applications of their work in a format that more closely resembles chats at a cookout than classroom lectures. New episodes are shared each Tuesday.

Lindsey Haugh

• Child psychology
• College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences research
• College of Science

Related Content

Advertisement

Supported by

How ‘Inside Out’ and Its Sequel Changed Therapy

Mental health professionals and educators say the movies are remarkably helpful in providing a common language they can use with children and parents.

• Share full article

By Melena Ryzik

In 2012, when Olivia Carter was just starting out as a school counselor, she employed all sorts of strategies to help her elementary-age students understand and communicate their feelings — drawing, charades, color association, role playing. After 2015, though, starting those conversations became a lot easier, she said. It took just one question: “Who has seen the movie ‘Inside Out’?”

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

That Pixar hit, about core emotions like joy and sadness, and this summer’s blockbuster sequel, which focuses on anxiety, have been embraced by educators, counselors, therapists and caregivers as an unparalleled tool to help people understand themselves. The story of the moods steering the “control panel” in the head of a girl named Riley has been transformational, many experts said, in day-to-day treatment, in schools and even at home, where the films have given parents a new perspective on how to manage the turmoil of growing up.

“As therapeutic practice, it has become a go-to,” said David A. Langer, president of the American Board of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology . In his household, too: “I have 9-year-old twins — we speak about it regularly,” said Langer, who’s also a professor of psychology at Suffolk University. “Inside Out” finger puppets were in frequent rotation when his children were younger, a playful way to examine the family dynamic. “The art of ‘Inside Out’ is explicitly helping us understand our internal worlds,” Langer said.

And it’s not just schoolchildren that it applies to. “I’ve been stealing lines from the movie and quoting them to adults, not telling them that I’m quoting,” said Regine Galanti, a psychologist and author in private practice on Long Island, speaking of the new film.

Audiences have lapped it up: “Inside Out 2” has now grossed more than $1.5 billion globally, shattering box office records for animation along the way.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Vanderbilt’s Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center to support state early childhood policy decisions with new grants

Media inquiries.

• 615-322-6397 Email

Latest Stories

• Vanderbilt updates freedom of expression policies and expands civil discourse programming
• ‘Stuff You Should Know’ kicks off for FY25 on Aug. 22; new leadership opportunity available
• Next Steps at Vanderbilt University program secures $2.32M Department of Labor grant

Share this Story

Aug 7, 2024, 2:12 PM

The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development recently received generous support from the Bezos Family Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to expand the center’s capacity to provide guidance to states on effective early childhood policy, to understand the impact of states’ governance of early childhood policies and programs on support for early childhood investments, and to host policy academies. The center also released a research brief recapping policies enacted during 2024 state legislative sessions that align with evidence from the Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap.

With support from the Bezos Family Foundation, the center will expand its internal capacity to accelerate and target states’ adoption of evidence-based policies in the annual Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap to help more young children thrive. The roadmap is a resource for states to understand evidence-based policies and to track their progress toward policy adoption and implementation. The Bezos Family Foundation grant will also support the center’s continued production and dissemination of the roadmap and two annual policy academies.

The Hilton Foundation is funding the center’s early childhood governance study. The study will help to identify early childhood governance structures in each state, determine patterns of governance, and understand if certain structures, such as separate, cabinet-level agencies, are more effective or efficient at supporting early childhood investments in the state. The study aims to provide guidance on the governance structures that best align with states’ goals and are most effective at serving children and families. As states consider the best way to serve families with young children, findings from this study will inform decisions on whether to consolidate or disperse the administration and governance of early childhood programs and services.

In July, the Hilton Foundation’s support allowed the center to host the Community-Based Doula Policy Learning Symposium to enhance states’ policy expertise and implementation of doula policies. Staff in attendance from state legislatures, agencies, and advocacy groups learned about various doula models and the potential impacts of doula policies on child and family outcomes. They also explored various policy and implementation levers within a broader discussion of maternal health policies and impacts on healthy and equitable birth outcomes.

While Medicaid reimbursements for doula support vary across states, nearly every state that spoke with the center’s experts inquired about the potential impact, funding mechanisms, workforce, and certification infrastructure. The center addressed these questions at the symposium, attended by twenty-nine staff members from 21 states and 13 speakers from 10 states.

By providing states with evidence on effective policies and guidance throughout policy design and implementation processes, the center believes that states will be better positioned to implement policies that improve outcomes for children and families. In fact, as discussed in the center’s research brief on the 2024 legislative session, many states passed policies that align with four key components of the prenatal-to-3 system of care: child care, state tax credits, paid family and medical leave, and community-based doulas. Across these measures, 24 policies were enacted this year, suggesting that policymakers have a growing interest in creating the conditions for children and families to thrive and, thus, a greater need for the work of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center.

The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center

The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center aims to accelerate states’ equitable implementation of evidence-based policies that help all children thrive from the start. Based at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development and led by Cynthia Osborne, professor of early childhood education and policy, the center’s team of researchers and nonpartisan policy experts works with policymakers, practitioners, and advocates to navigate the evidence on solutions for effective child development in the earliest years. Learn more at www.pn3policy.org .

The Bezos Family Foundation

The Bezos Family Foundation is an independent, nonprofit private Foundation founded by Mike and Jackie Bezos, who, along with their family, serve as the Foundation’s directors. Since 2001, the Foundation has partnered with remarkable organizations and individuals to transform how we prepare young people from prenatal through young adulthood to pursue their own path for success and meaningfully contribute to society. In addition to grantmaking, the Foundation runs two in-house programs: Bezos Scholars Program and Vroom.  

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage worldwide. Today, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to ensure healthy early childhood development and sustainable livelihoods for youth and refugee populations, support young people transitioning out of foster care, improve access to housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, identify solutions to safe water access, and lift the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. The Foundation is one of the world’s largest, with approximately $7 billion in assets. It has awarded grants to date totaling more than $3.2 billion worldwide, and $290 million in 2023. Please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org for more information.

Keep Reading

To ensure children thrive from the start

Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center report: state policies cause dramatic variation in child well-being and family resilience

Virginia child care reforms show states’ power to support families and the economy

Explore story topics.

• Education and Psychology
• Cynthia Osborne
• Peabody College
• Peabody College of Education and Human Development
• peabody-home
• Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center

• Faculty A-Z
• Faculty Instructions
• Faculty by Department
• Student Research Home
• Faculty By Keyword
• Keyword Search

INFORMATION FOR

• Residents & Fellows
• Researchers

YCSC 2024 graduates share plans and next steps

At an annual Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) commencement event honoring trainees in the class of 2024 on June 21, 2024, some of the graduates’ future plans and next steps were shared. Highlights are included below, listed by training program. Several will be staying at Yale in new positions, while others are pursuing opportunities both near and far.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellows

Brittany Atuahene Robinson, MD will be an attending psychiatrist in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Cooper University Healthcare in Camden, New Jersey. She is also joining the faculty at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and will primarily be working with adolescents and transitional age youth.

Matthew C. Johnson, MD will be a psychiatrist at the Medical Psychiatric Integrated Care Unit (IC5) at Connecticut Children’s Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. He will be engaged in clinical and teaching duties on the unit and will hold academic appointment responsibilities as a member of the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

Joseph Albert Knoble, MD will work with Frontier Psychiatry, a physician led tele-psychiatry company that is focused on serving rural, underserved families. He will also remain connected to the YCSC as a clinical instructor, exploring topics involving the gut-brain-axis, metabolic health, and the use of technology for communities with limited access to care.

Allison Lawler, MD, MEdT will be in a dual position as associate program director at the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine, General Psychiatry Residency, as well as a child psychiatrist at the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. She will also remain connected to the YCSC as a community faculty member.

Jelena G. MacLeod, MD, MHS is exploring multiple job opportunities, from academia to industry and government, all on the leading edge of digital psychiatry and informatics. She will be taking the summer off to study for two boards exams (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Clinical Informatics) while she weighs her options.

Maria Motlagh, MD will be working part-time at Fair Haven Community Health Center as a consultant for the pediatric refugee population and at Elmport Group in Westport, Connecticut. She will also remain a part of the YCSC as a community faculty member.

Onyi Okeke, MD will be embarking on a professional journey at Community Health Center Incorporated, where she will serve as a child psychiatrist. Her role will span school-based mental health programs in Middletown and New Britain schools and psychiatric consultations for outpatient pediatricians. She is also eager to cultivate a harmonious work-life balance, allowing her to devote more quality time to her husband and son.

Sherab Tsheringla, MD will continue at Yale University as faculty in the Interventional Psychiatry Service. He plans to continue his clinical and research efforts to develop and provide novel interventions for what has been called treatment refractory conditions. He hopes to develop further a robust interventional psychiatry service for pediatric populations and also for autistic individuals who often have significant co-occurring conditions including catatonia and severe self-injurious behaviors.

Child and Adolescent Psychology Fellows

Saja Almusawi, PhD will join Bellevue Hospital Center, part of the NYU Langone Health System and NYC Health + Hospitals, as a clinical psychologist at the Frances L. Loeb Child Protection and Development Center. Additionally, she will be appointed as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone.

Dani Novick, PhD will be joining the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine as an assistant professor. Her role will encompass providing early childhood, adolescent, and perinatal outpatient services, alongside research focused on developing and evaluating community-based programs to enhance child mental health. Additionally, she is thrilled to pay forward the knowledge and skills she gained through her fellowship training as a clinical supervisor.

C. Teal Raffaele, PhD will join the psychology faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center within their Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders. She will also be collaborating with the Regulation of Emotion in Autistic Adults, Children, and Teens research program.

Cara Tomaso, PhD will remain at the YCSC in the role of assistant professor of clinical child psychology, embedded in the Section of Pediatric Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at Yale New Haven Hospital. She will split her time between the Yale Limb Restoration and Lengthening Program and the Female+ Athlete Program. She will be joining multidisciplinary treatment teams to provide behavioral health consultation to physicians, nurses, social workers, and other allied professions.

Child and Adolescent Social Work Fellows

Christian D. Edwards, MSW, LCSW will be relocating back to his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where he will serve his community by working with VNS Health on their children's mobile crisis team. He looks forward to incorporating and utilizing the clinical skills he developed during his social work fellowship. Additionally, Christian plans to apply for doctoral studies this upcoming fall, aiming for a PhD in social work.

Stephanie Salazar, LMSW will be working at Southwest Key Programs in Houston, Texas where she will provide clinical services to at-risk Latinx children and adolescents under their unaccompanied minors program, a program that provides round-the-clock services and clinical care to youth pending reunification with vetted sponsors.

M.Res. in Developmental Neuroscience & Psychopathology, Anna Freud Centre and University College London

• Erin Basol, BA will work as a research assistant at the Harpaz-Rotem PTSD Lab at Yale.
• Jade Bouffard, BSc will pursue opportunities in clinical psychology sectors in Europe.
• Satvika Char, BSc will work as a postgraduate associate in the Stover Lab at the YCSC.
• Yulan Chen, BA will be working as a postgraduate associate in the Cho Lab at the YCSC.
• Olivia Cuevas Geiger, BSc will be pursuing opportunities in clinical, public, and private sectors.
• Bethan Gilligan, BSc will pursue clinical and research opportunities in the U.K.
• Maisha Hossain, BA will be working as a postgraduate associate in the Before and After Baby Lab at the YCSC.
• Zoe Howell, BSc will be working as a postgraduate associate in the Before and After Baby Lab at the YCSC.
• Maria Jelen, BSc will begin working on a PhD at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at University of Cambridge.
• Gihyun Kim, BA will work as a postgraduate associate in the YAY Lab at the YCSC.
• Danai Ioakeimidou, BSc will be pursuing opportunities in clinical settings and academia.
• Tara Ramsay-Patel, BA will pursue clinical and research opportunities in the U.K.

Featured in this article

• Joseph Knoble
• Allison Lawler, MD, MEd
• Maria Motlagh, MD
• Sherab Tsheringla, MD, MBBS
• Cara Tomaso
• Jade Bouffard
• Satvika Char
• Olivia Cuevas Geiger
• Maisha Hossain
• Maria Jelen
• Danai Ioakeimidou

Related Links

• Forty trainees recognized at annual Yale Child Study Center graduation event
• YCSC clinical internships, residencies, & fellowships
• YCSC-UCL master's program