Mette Skovgaard Væver

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Primary fields of research

Early childhood mental health and development (0-6 years), attachment and parenting, early parent-child interaction, early intervention and prevention, developmental psychopathology

Current research

I am head of Center for Early Intervention and Family Studies (CIF), where we conduct applied research aiming to strengthen the social and early community healthcare in promotion of parenting and early childhood mental health. Further, CIF contributes to strengthen the national knowledge and competence in all frontline staff working with 0-6 year old children and their families by offerening training and courses.

A central project in CIF is Copenhagen Infant Mental Health Project (CIMHP, 2015-2020). CIMHP is a large community research project, where we collaborate with the healthnurses in Copenhagen to evaluate the implementation of a new screening instrument for infant social withdrawal and test the effect of an indicated preventive intervention program, Circle of Security - Parenting.

In a number of years I have conducted basic research in early childhood mental health in the setting of Copenhagen University Babylab - both in typical and in at-risk populations. In a longitudinal study (N=90) we examine how early patterns of non-verbal interaction are related to later attachment, language and cognitive development in the first, second, third and fifth year of the child's life.  Data collection at the five year follow-up was closed in the sommer of 2017.

I another other ongoing project "Play and Exploration in Early Childhood: An attachment perspective" the relation between play, exploration and attachment is examined in two agegroups of preschool children.

My research is currently supported by grants from Tryg Foundation and LEGO Foundation.

Teaching

• Clinical child psychology, especially early childhood (0-6 yeasr) mental helath and development
• Attachemnet and parenting/parental capabilities
• Early parent-child interaction
• Infant Mental Health screening, prevention and intervention
• Developmental psychopathology