The Centre’s research will provide professionals working with families and adolescents with answers to questions like: What are the emotional reactions produced by everyday problems that couples and family members encounter in daily life? What are psychologically healthy forms of emotion regulation? What is the role of empathy in understanding and helping with the emotional experience of the other person? To what extent does person’s well-being depend on his or her emotional experiences at work? Does emotional support in the family compensate for difficult emotional experiences at work (e.g. harassment). What about the – emotional – work-life or work-family balance of women and men who are working and educating children at the same time? What are risk factors for child and adolescent development that are due to the emotional climate in the family? How can we enhance “emotion skills” in parents that facilitate their children’s emotional life and competence, their empathetic and prosocial capacities?

In addition to fostering a better understanding of these issues, research in the Centre will develop new tools for screening parents’ and children’s emotional experiences and behaviors, using advanced techniques (including computer technology for personalized programs).

In later project periods, the Centre will develop intervention procedures to enhance the family’s emotional competences and well-being, as well as prevention programs which can be proposed to families, couples or adolescents at risk.