Share This:
Primary Research and Clinical Interests
Dr. Geeraerts is a visiting researcher, and an assistant professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In her research, she aims to understand the role of (grand-)parents in children’s lives, and the factors that explain parenting behavior. Dr. Geeraerts currently conducts a project in which existing studies are combined to examine which parenting practices are more and less likely to be transmitted across generations, and under which conditions this transmission is stronger or weaker. In addition, she is involved in a project that focusses on the role of grandparents in Dutch families.
Selected Publications
- Geeraerts, S. B., Endendijk, J., Deater-Deckard, K., Huijding, J., Deutz, M. H. F., van den Boomen, C., & Deković, M. (2021). The role of parental self-regulation and household chaos in parent-toddler interactions: A time-series study. Journal of Family Psychology, 35(2), 236–246. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000814
- Geeraerts, S.B., Endendijk, J., Deater-Deckard, K., Deković, M., Huijding, J., & Mesman, J. (2020). Inhibitory control across the preschool years: Developmental changes and associations with parenting. Child Development, 92(1), 335-350. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13426
- Branje, S., Geeraerts, S.B., de Zeeuw, E. L., Oerlemans, A. M., Koopman-Verhoeff, M. E. Schulz, S., Nelemans, S., Meeus, W., Hartman, C. A., Hillegers M. H. J., Oldehinkel, A. J., & Boomsma, D.I. (2020). Theoretical and methodological issues in intergenerational transmission: An introduction to four Dutch cohorts. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 45, Article 100835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020 .100835
- Geeraerts, S. B., Backer, P., Stifter, C. (2020). It takes two: Infants’ moderate negative reactivity and maternal sensitivity predict self-regulation in the preschool years. Developmental Psychology, 56(5), 869 – 879. https://doi/10.1037/dev0000921
BTA – Beyond The Average
Project Overview
Parenting practices, such as discipline techniques and sensitive caregiving, are vital to human development, and they tend to be passed down the generational line. Currently, we mainly know how intergenerational transmission of parenting works on average. By using an Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis, the Beyond the Average (BTA) project moves beyond average descriptions of intergenerational transmission of parenting. As such, the BTA project has the following objectives: [1] Identify parenting dimensions that are more and less likely to be transmitted across generations; [2] Identify factors that account for the degree of intergenerational continuity and discontinuity in parenting; [3] Add a developmental perspective to models on intergenerational transmission of parenting; and [4] Implement state-of-the-art IPD meta-analyses to examine individual differences in the field of developmental psychology. This project will result in robust and detailed knowledge on intergenerational transmission of parenting, thereby answering to the widely supported call to prioritize across-study-replication and robustness checks. Moreover, the knowledge obtained through this project will help tailor prevention efforts towards specific populations, developmental periods, and parenting dimensions.
Year Project Begins: 2023
Funder: European Union – Marie Skłodowska Curie Action