Welcome to the Emotional Development research lab
In this research lab, we concentrate on the different aspects of emotional functioning. We have a specific interest in children's and adolescents' focus on emotions, hence the name of our group: Focus on Emotions. The group forms part of the unit Developmental and Educational Psychology at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Our research involves many aspects of children's emotion regulation, such as appraisal and emotion awareness, coping, emotion expression, and social influences on children's emotional development. We study children's emotional functioning in typically and atypically developing groups.
Since validated measures to examine the various aspects of children’s emotional functioning are scarce, many of the instruments we use are developed and/or validated within this group (see Instrument Development).
Maartje successfully defended her thesis on April 18, and now goes by the name of Dr Kouwenberg. Well done Maartje!
Professor Lidon Villanueva, from the University of Castellón (Spain), visited our lab to be part of the PhD committee for Maartje Kouwenberg's defense, to examine Maartje on the measures for delinquency used in her studies. But of course we also did some sightseeing at the Zaanse Schans and climbed a windmill.
Specific projects
- Autism: Understanding and applying emotion regulation skills in children with autism
- Culture: The functionality of emotion regulation skills in different cultures
- Deafness: How functional are deaf children’s emotional skills?
- Somatic Complaints: To what extent do emotion regulation skills contribute to the experience of somatic complaints in children and adolescents?
- Theory of Mind: How can we measure children’s ToM capacities?
From left to right: Sofia, Mara, Firat, Lizet, Carolien, Neeltje, Stephanie, and Evelien
Emotions? This year's Lapptoppers know all about it now. During the course of seven weeks, a group of enthusiastic high school students participated in meetings in which the various aspects of emotions were discussed. Why do we have emotions? How do we recognize them, and to whom do we express ourselves when we are angry? The students even made a short 
This week, trainer Ivet Pieper presented our project Hoe laat ik mijn wereld zien? at the 
A very exciting event is coming up, Maartje will be defending her dissertation on April 18! Over the past 4 years, Maartje has been working at our lab, conducting research on deaf and hard-of-hearing children's social-emotional functioning in comparison to normal-hearing children. This has culminated in a thesis called 'Social-emotional factors underlying internalizing problems and peer relations in deaf or hard-of-hearing youth'. Congratulations on this accomplishment Maartje, and we will be there to cheer you on!