Research interests
I study the development of children's emotional competence and their emotion understanding. From infancy to school entry, children make remarkable advances in their capacity to negotiate emotionally challenging situations, share their emotional experiences and understand other people as emotional agents. Whilst development brings increasing emotional autonomy, children remain deeply dependent on the structures that support them, and each family affords different opportunities to explore and integrate emotional experiences.
The majority of my research centres on variation in the emotional competencies and emotion understanding of children. Some aspects of this variation undoubtedly originate in constitutional differences between children (e.g., temperament), whereas other aspects have a social origin. By studying variation between children and the worlds in which they find themselves, it is my belief that we can open a window onto the mechanisms underlying emotional resilience and emotional disturbance.
To equip children for the emotional challenges they will face is one of the greatest responsibilities of parents and those caring for children. How children will meet these challenges is ultimately in their own hands.
Areas of specialisation
- Emotional Development and Social Cognition in Infancy and Early Childhood- Individual Differences in Children's Socio-Cognitive Development
- The Inter-Generational Transmission of Social Fears
- Attachment and the 'Internal Working Model' Construct
- Children's Theory of Mind and Folk-Psychological Understanding
Previous appointments and qualifications
2003-2006Junior Research Fellow
Churchill College, University of Cambridge, UK
(Centre for Family Research)
2002-2003
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Winnicott Research Unit, University of Reading, UK
2000-2002
Junior Dean of Students
Somerville College, University of Oxford, UK
1997-2003
Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil)
Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK
Corpus Christi and Somerville
1993-1997
BSc (Honours) 1st Class
(Behavioural Sciences and Genetics)
Macquarie University, Australia
Competitive grants
2008-2011
Fitting in and making friends:
The psycho-social underpinnings of children’s adaptation to school
Australian Research Council Discovery Project
Investigators: M de Rosnay, L Zadro and C Hunt
Grant value: $330,000 (No. DP0881855)
2007-2010
Acquiring social fears in infancy:
Underlying mechanisms and implications for behavioural intervention
Australian Research Council Discovery Project
Chief Investigator: M de Rosnay (APD)
Grant value: $361,004 (No. DP0774331)
2007
Children’s socio-cognitive understanding in action and context
University of Sydney Research & Development Grant Scheme
Chief Investigator: M de Rosnay
Grant value: $24,000
2005-2008
Internal working models and young children’s social-emotional development
Economic and Social Research Council, UK
Investigators: E Meins, C Fernyhough, M de Rosnay, B Arnott, & L Vittorini
Grant value: £ 316,000 (No. 000231073)
2003-2006
Junior Research Fellowship
Churchill College, University of Cambridge, UK
Publications
Peer reviewed Journal Articles
Corriveau, K. H., Harris, P. L., Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., Arnott, B., Elliott, L., Liddle, B., Hearn, A., Vittorini, L., & de Rosnay, M. (2009) Young children’s trust in their mother’s claims: Longitudinal links with attachment security in infancy. Child Development, 80(3), 750-761.
Pons, F., de Rosnay, M., Harris, P., & Lecce, S. (2009). Theory of Mind and language in children. Impuls, 3, 30-41
Murray, L., de Rosnay, M., Pearson, J., Bergeron, C., Schofield, E., Royal-Lawson, M., & Cooper, P. J. (2008). Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety: The role of social referencing processes in infancy. Child Development, 79(4), 1049-1064.
de Rosnay, M., Cooper, P., Tsigaras, N., & Murray, L. (2006). Transmission of social anxiety from mother to infant: An experimental study using a social referencing paradigm. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 44(8). 1165-1175.
de Rosnay, M. & Hughes, C. (2006). Conversation and theory of mind: Do children talk their way to socio-cognitive understanding? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24(1), 7-37.
Harris, P. L., de Rosnay, M., & Pons, F. (2005). Language and children’s understanding of mental states. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(1), 69-73.
Pons, F., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2004). Emotion comprehension between 3 and 11 years: Developmental periods and hierarchical organization. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1(2), 127-152.
de Rosnay, M., Pons, F., Harris, P. L. & Morrell, J. M. B. (2004). A lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution in young children: Relationships with linguistic ability and mothers’ mental-state language. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22(2), 197-218.
Pons, F., Lawson, J., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2003). Individual differences in children’s emotion understanding: Effects of age and language. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 44(4), 347-353.
de Rosnay, M., & Harris, P. L. (2002) Individual differences in children’s understanding of emotion: The roles of attachment and language. Attachment and Human Development, 4(1), 39-45.
Pons, F., Harris, P., & de Rosnay, M. (2000). La compréhension des émotions chez l’enfant. Psychoscope, 21(9), 29-32.
Other publications
de Rosnay, M., Harris, P.L. & Pons, F. (2008). Making links between emotion understanding and developmental psychopathology in young children. In C. Sharp, P. Fonagy, & I. Goodyer (Eds.), Social cognition and developmental psychopathology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.de Rosnay, M., Pons, F., & Harris, P.L. (2008). Perché il Test di Comprensione delle Emozioni (TEC). In O Albanese & P. Molina, Lo sviluppo della comprensione delle emozioni e la sua valutazione: La standardizzazione italiana del Test de Comprensione delle Emozioni (TEC) (pp. 9-17). Milano: Edizioni Unicopli.
This book section(above)—entitled Why the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC)?—is a prolegomenon to the volume devoted to the Italian standardization of the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC)
Pons, F., de Rosnay, M., Doudin, P.-A., Harris, P., & De Stasio, S. (2007). Comprensione sociale ed emotiva nei bambini. In M. Pinelli (Ed.) Metacognizione, emozioni, teoria della mente: Relazioni e strumenti di misure (pp. 25-28). Parma: Uni.Nova.
Pons, F., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2006). Theory of mind in children: Impact of children’s language and families’ conversation. In C. Jantzen & T. Thellesen (Eds.), Videnskabelig begrebsdannelse. Aalborg: Aalborg Universitrtsforlag.
(Journal Special Issue)
Hughes, C. & de Rosnay, M. (Eds.) (2006). The role of conversations in children’s social, emotional and cognitive development. Special Issue of the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24(1).
(Book Chapter)
Pons, F., Doudin, P.-A., Harris, P., & de Rosnay, M. (2006). La comprensione delle emozioni tra intelletto e affectto. In O. Albanese, M.-F. Daniel, P.-A. Doudin, L. Lafortune & F. Pons (Eds.), Competenza emotive tra psicologia ed educazione
(pp. 15-34). Milano: Franco Angeli.
(Book Chapter)
Pons, F., Doudin, P.-A., Harris, P., & de Rosnay (2005). Helping children to improve their emotion comprehension. In F. Pons, D. Hancock, L. Lafortune & P.-A. Doudin (Eds.), Emotions in learning (pp. 15-39). Aalborg: Aalborg University Press.
(Book Chapter)
Pons, F., Doudin, P.-A., Harris, P., & de Rosnay (2005). La compréhension des émotions: entre affect et intellect. In L. Lafotune, M.-F. Daniel, P.-A. Doudin, F. Pons & O. Albanese (Eds.), Pédagogie et psychologie des émotions (183-206). Sainte-Foy: Presses de l’Université du Québec.
(Book Chapter)
Pons, F., Doudin, P.-A., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2002). Métaémotion et intégration scolaire. In L. Lafortune & P. Mongeau (Eds.), L’affectivité dans l’apprentissage. Saint-Foy: Presses de l'Université du Québec.
(Book Review)
Pons, F., & de Rosnay, M. (2000). Review of Sternberg’s “Nature of cognition”. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 59(3), 215-216.