A central aim of developmental psychology is to understand the mechanisms shaping child development. The Miracles of Development (MIDE) study, a 20-year longitudinal project, provides a unique opportunity to revisit fundamental questions in the field. Guided by Sameroff’s Unified Theory of Development, in the present study, we review multilevel processes that regulate the effects of childhood experiences on developmental outcomes.

The MIDE study (https://projects.tuni.fi/kehi/) has followed N = 866 Finnish families (mothers, fathers, and children) from pregnancy (T1) and infancy (T2–T3) through middle childhood (T4) to early adulthood (T5). We synthesize findings from over twenty MIDE studies that have employed diverse methodologies, including self-reports, social-cognitive experiments, and neurophysiological assessments.

The review focuses on four key questions, emphasizing the developmental domains of mental health, social functioning, and self-regulation: (I) To what extent do early experiences determine later outcomes? Fourteen studies have used prospective designs to examine how early life stress and family environments predict child development. (II) Are there sensitive periods in development? Eight studies provide information on how the timing of developmental experiences predicts later outcomes. (III) How do biological and psychological processes align in development? Five studies incorporate hormonal assessments or brain imaging, allowing comparisons with self-reported outcomes. (IV) What role do representations play in development? Five studies contrast retrospective self-reports in adulthood with prospective parent-reports during childhood, allowing analysis of the significance of more subjective (i.e., memories) and objective events in development.

The new insights from the synthesized results are discussed in relation to prevailing developmental models. Suggestions are made for future research to carefully consider methodological approaches, as these define the limits of understanding developmental phenomena. Moreover, the findings highlight the need to further clarify cross-level processes between biological and psychosocial domains.

Behavioral observation has a long tradition in various areas of psychology. Although during the heyday of observational studies in the 1920s and early 1930s, direct observation was regarded as “the oldest, and remains the commonest, instrument of scientific research” (Jersild & Meigs, 1939), psychology has increasingly become an ODD (Observation- and Description-Deprived) science (Ray & Fiske, 2010). The emphasis on efficiency and productivity, combined with the fact that behavioral observation is time-consuming and labor-intensive, has led psychology to move away from its fundamental task of observing and describing natural phenomena (Tinbergen, 1972).

However, recent advancements in computer vision (CV) and machine learning (ML) now enable precise, detailed, low-cost, and non-intrusive observation of behavior. This talk illustrates how CVML technologies can be used to collect rich multivariate time-series data and analyze behavioral dynamics in social interactions through three ongoing studies conducted at the child lab of Jagiellonian University in collaboration with computer scientists.

In the first longitudinal study, 75 caregiver-infant pairs were observed during three visits at 4, 7, and 12 months of age. Automated Facial Action Recognition (AFAR) was applied to both infants and mothers during free play to examine the coupling and coordination of their facial expressions at the level of Action Units and finer-grained facial movement patterns. The second cross-cultural study investigated the smoothness of individual and dyadic movements in Yurakaré and Polish siblings during a cooperative tower-building task. Finally, the Visual Perception Tracker, an innovative system integrating multiple camera views to automatically identify gaze direction, mutual attention, gaze coordination episodes, and ultimately joint attention in semi-naturalistic settings, will be presented.

Taken together, our research demonstrates how methodological and technological advancements can help address longstanding developmental questions, making psychology more firmly grounded in the observation and description of natural phenomena.

Kindergarten teachers are regarded as ultimate child maltreatment (CM) reporters as they are in a unique position to detect CM due to their daily interactions with young children. Nevertheless, research on kindergarten teachers’ skills and actual behavior when managing CM cases is insofar limited; it has only been conducted by using case vignettes (viz. examining hypothetical reactions) and has not explored the determinants of teachers’ behavior in their past encounters with CM cases (thus, examining actual past reactions). The present study aimed to enhance the understanding of kindergarten teachers’ handling CM cases and to extend methodological knowledge by comparing correlates of kindergarten teachers’ CM handling via historical recall (i.e., actual past reporting) on one hand, and by responses to case vignettes (i.e., hypothetical reporting) οn the other. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey as part of a larger project to create a comprehensive training program for Greek kindergarten teachers on child maltreatment, implemented by the ‘Eliza -Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children’ and funded by Piraeus Bank. The sample consisted of 1.581 female kindergarten teachers who completed an online questionnaire including a) a questionnaire designed for this study assessing socio-demographic factors previously identified as important factors influencing teachers’ CM detecting and reporting behavior, and self-efficacy, b) the “Survey on Professional Groups’ Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Social Norms Associated with Violence Against Children”, providing information on actual past reporting, and c) four CM case vignettes. The series of regression models used in the statistical analysis revealed that the variables that predict past detection and reporting differ from those that predict hypothetical detection and reporting. The implications of these findings for CM research and training of kindergarten teachers are discussed.

In 2020, a group of young people seeking asylum in the UK and the charity supporting them, partnered with a cross-disciplinary team of academics to research the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on unaccompanied asylum-seeking youth in the UK. After a series of online meetings, the Lives On Hold, Our Stories Told (LOHST) project was established and secured ESRC funding. The project explored how the pandemic affected young people’s experiences of the asylum process, and access to services, education and available support systems.

As part of this initiative, we trained 11 young peer researchers (primarily Albanian) who conducted, with us, semi-structured online interviews with 69 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people (aged 16–25) and 53 practitioners (from across social care, policy, legal, and clinical professions). The young peer researchers, with support from their charity, were actively involved in study design, data collection, analysis, report writing, and dissemination.

A key finding highlighted the young people’s accounts of worsening mental health during the pandemic, which they attributed to the lack of progress and uncertainty in their asylum claims, as well as isolation and limited access to support, education, and services.

In this presentation, I will reflect on the experience of working with this group of young people, discussing the challenges we encountered (particularly peer researcher well-being and ethical complexities) and the strategies we used to navigate them. I will also highlight the benefits of adopting a peer research methodology.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) has been increasingly recognised as a strategy to empower youth to enact change in their communities. It is seen as an approach to redistribute power and foster societal transformation. However, youth in disadvantaged positions – such as those with migration backgrounds and those living in neighbourhoods with limited access to quality education and social services – are often excluded from research projects and labelled as ‘hard-to-reach’.

In this presentation, we critically reflect on barriers and facilitators of PAR with ‘hard-to-reach’ youth, who are often distrustful of institutions and unfamiliar with (participatory action) research. To this end, we draw on reflections from a project conducted in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with n = 65 youth (aged 13-20), recruited through youth workers in community hubs and outreach programmes. Youth participated in 1-2 sessions that included idea-generation, video-inspired reflections, debates, and mapping exercises to explore youth’s views on street harassment and ways to tackle it. To build trust, the researchers participated in existing activities with youth before engaging them in the project. Reflection methods include pre-and post-surveys, collective reflections with youth workers, and informal interviews with youth.

Our preliminary findings show that, while PAR aims to raise critical awareness among participants from all backgrounds, many participants struggled to voice their opinions, potentially due to low self-esteem and diverging communication styles. Consequently, deeper discussions were sometimes deferred to avoid undermining confidence, potentially affecting data richness. Moreover, the youth’s identity formation and group dynamics influenced participation. Status within the group often dictated accepted behaviours, complicating trust-building among peers. Addressing these dynamics required careful facilitation and flexibility in research approaches.

This study offers practical reflections for researchers aiming to engage youth in disadvantaged positions in participatory action-oriented research, emphasising the need for trust-building, adaptive methods, and sensitivity to group dynamics and individual development.