How is your parenting shaping your child’s emotional wellbeing?

The seminar hosted by Massey’s Institute of Education How parents shape children’s emotional and mental worlds across contexts and cultures, will explore how parent-child interactions, parental wellbeing and cultural influences shape children’s social emotional development.

The seminar brings together two academic experts in child development and psychology, Massey university Associate Professor Zhenlin Wang and visiting Fulbright Scholar Professor Xin Feng from Ohio State University.

In the seminar, both Dr Feng and Dr Wang will discuss how parenting practices, emotional communication and cultural context influence children’s social and emotional development.

Dr Feng says the topic has become increasingly important following the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in many children and adults experiencing emotional and psychological challenges.

“Parent-child interactions provide a critical context for understanding how children develop emotionally and cognitively, and how they adapt to stress and adversity.”

Dr Feng has been based at Massey University during a six-month Fulbright scholarship. In collaboration with Dr Wang, their team is undertaking a research project examining the developmental trajectories of internalizing problems and prosocial behaviours in children and adolescence in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Wang says this ongoing research project has the potential to deepen understanding of family dynamics and child development in New Zealand contexts.

“We are currently working with data from New Zealand longitudinal cohort studies and hope that our findings will help inform policymaking and enhance community understanding of family wellbeing.”

The seminar will be held on Thursday 28 May from 12pm to 1pm on the Manawatū campus in the Social Science Tower Extension 5.54 and online via Zoom. Everyone is welcome to attend.