Research group

Research Group

Elia Psouni, PI and head of the Skåne center (licensed psychologist, professor of Developmental Psychology, and chair of the Developmental Psychology-division at Lund University). Psouni has expertise on child and family development with focus on attachment, socioemotional competence, and psychological resilience, considering the child's entire network of caregivers. Psouni combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies, while several projects include participatory research with children/youth or adults.

Elin Alfredsson, University of Gothenburg (PhD, Lic. psychol/GU, MBHV-psykolog), has extensive experience of longitudinal intervention studies. She heads the Västra Götaland center, liaises with the Regional BMHV units and organizes information on site.

Gizem Han graduated from the International Master's Program in Psychology at Lund University in 2018 and joined the project as a PhD student in March 2020. Within the project, she focuses on the implicit components of attachment representations and how they can be reliably activated and assessed. She examines brain signatures of these components and studies whether their activation can affect known attachment-related cognitive biases.

Martina Andersson Søe graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 2016 with a Master’s in psychology, and worked as a preschool- and school psychologist and family therapist. Within the project, combining an attachment theoretical and systemic approach, Martina focuses on the introduction to preschool and how it lays the foundation for relationship building and relationship quality between preschool staff, parents and children.

Lisa Funkquist Sköld is a lic. Paychologist. After graduating 2021 from the Clinical Psychologist program at LU, Lisa has worked in neonatal care and with psychodynamic therapies at primary care clinics. Within the project, Lisa focuses particularly on how attachment development unfolds in children who grow up with alternating housing from the first year of life, both through studies with a participatory research methodology approach and through studies with a focus on parent-child interaction.

Other collaborators

Elinor Schad (Lic. Psychologist, PhD, specialist in Pedagogic Psychology, LU), expertise on issues related to preschool, school.

Juan Merlo (Professor, Social Epidemiology, Lund University) large database analysis.

National consultant group, professors emeritus: Pia Risholm, Gunilla Bohlin and Anders Broberg

International consultants for the project:

Professor Pasco Fearon (UCL), with leading expertise on mechanisms of socioemotional development, and the social and biological processes involved in risk for psychopathology.

Professor Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), leading researcher in attachment and emotion regulation in parents and their children. 

Professor Carlo Schuengel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), studies family relationships and the development of mental health and resilience; and is currently heading a longitudinal pregnancy cohort study in the Netherlands.

Support Staff

At Lund University, economist Camilla Rapp and HR-officer Hannah Stén provide valuable administrative support. Ulrika Oredsson provides media-support. Lovisa Fey Walltin provides communicational support. All illustrations and transcribing work are made by Isabella Garwicz-Psouni.