Co-Directors

Bonamy Oliver: I am interested in how children’s experiences - particularly their family relationships and parenting - are associated with their postive and negative behaviours.  My research focuses on using longitudinal, and often twin designs to understand child development.  In addition, I am interested in individual differences in responses to interventions for children with challenging behaviours.

Note that Dr Oliver is now based at Goldsmiths, University of London.

 Alison Pike: My research focuses on the antecedents and consequences of family relationships, with a particular focus on siblings, and differential experiences of children within the same family.  This work has used cross-cultural, family and twin designs to facilitate an understanding at multiple levels of analysis. My current research focusses on the transition to siblinghood -- the arrival of the second-born.

PhD students

Former students

Rachel Latham: I am interested in parenting and how this relates to child behaviour.  Specifically my research aims to explore mother-child, father-child interactions and co-parenting from a behavioural genetic perspective.

Katharine (Katie) Mark: My research focus is on the nature and quality of the twin-twin relationship, and how the unique bonds formed between these same-aged siblings may differ from those between typical siblings.

Georgia Leith: My focus is on parent-child interactions during problem-solving activities.  Using the concepts of scaffolding, contingent shifting and self-regulatory behaviours, I explore how the parent supports their child and what factors might influence this support.  The aim of this work is to contribute to research into how to make homework sessions more effective.

BernaAytac: My research focus is on the nature of parenting across cultures; specifically my aim is to investigate the role of culture as a determinant of parenting, in conjunction with maternal values, sibling relations and child problem behaviours from a multilevel perspective. I am interested in within-and between-cultural differences in parent-child relationships and also to work with children who have siblings with special needs. I am currently working as a lecturer in Developmental Psychology, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.