The DYAD Lab aims to examine self-regulatory skills and emotion competence among parents and their young children. We are especially interested in the roles of emotion competence and self-regulation in children’s risk for behavior problems during early childhood. Our research interests fall into three broad categories:

  1. Examinations of the correlates and outcomes of emotion competence and self-regulation from a developmental psychopathology perspective
  2. Longitudinal investigations of transmission mechanisms (genetic factors, environmental exposures to toxicants, parent-child interaction patterns) that contribute to emotion regulation difficulties and behavior
  3. Evaluations of programs to promote emotion competence, self-regulatory skills, and school adjustment and to prevent conduct problems.

Our Principal Investigator, Dr. Chris Trentacosta, has expertise in conducting longitudinal research with low-income families and other populations that face significant life stressors.