Saara Nolvi
Ph.D (FT), adjunct professor (dos.)
FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study saara.nolvi@utu.fi Kiinamyllynkatu 10 Turku : Med A307/Pub 318 Contact requests by e-mail. |
prenatal stress; early life stress; postnatal stress; anxiety; temperament; fear reactivity; executive functioning; socioemotional development; cognitive development; structural equation modelling; milk cortisol; brain structure; amygdala; MRI; fMRI, DTI
Centre of Excellence for Learning Dynamics and Intervention (InterLearn); Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology; the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.
Pronouns: she/hers
I am adjunct professor (developmental psychology) and psychologist by background. I currently work as senior researcher in the Academy-funded Centrel of Excellence for Learning Dynamics and Intervention (InterLearn) in the Department of Psychology and Speech-Languge Pathology. I am the principal investigator in the Academy-funded PROSODE project where we explore parental social protective experiences and how they are linked to child self-regulation and brain development. Additionally, I am senior researcher in the PeCCaPS study, where the focus is in family functioning after the child has received diagnosis for pediatric cancer, and family members are being tested for their genetic predispositions for cancer.
My research focuses on early life environmental effects on child self-regulation development and the neural and other biological mechanisms underlying these associations. Particularly, I am interested in the buffering or promotive environmental factors, such as caregiving, parental presence, positive life events, or social support expriences. I am also interested in the inter-individual differences in sensitivity to stress and environment, and how these differences in plasticity are shaped by the environment across development. In
the InterLearn study, we are specifically interested in the longitudinal development of self-regulation and its relation to child mental health and academic functioning. We also aim to identify environmental factors that may buffer from or exacerbate the risk for academic and emotional difficulties.
Teacher education (60 ects); experience from teaching and lecturing from all age groups and educational levels
Taught courses currently:
PSYK3933 Developmental psychology I
PSYK4323 Master's thesis (Psychology)
- Maternal Pre- and Postnatal Anxiety Symptoms and Infant Attention Disengagement from Emotional Faces (2019)
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Trajectories of maternal pre- and postnatal anxiety and depressive symptoms and infant fear: Moderation by infant sex (2019)
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Human milk cortisol concentration predicts experimentally induced infant fear reactivity: moderation by infant sex (2018)
- Developmental Science
- Infant Sex Moderates the Effects of Maternal Pre- and Postnatal Stress on Executive Functioning at 8 Months of Age (2018)
- Infancy
- The courses of maternal and paternal depressive and anxiety symptoms during the prenatal period in the FinnBrain Birth Cohort study (2018)
- PLoS ONE
- The Relations Between Maternal Prenatal Anxiety or Stress and Child’s Early Negative Reactivity or Self-Regulation: A Systematic Review (2017)
- Child Psychiatry and Human Development
- The Role of Early Life Stress in Shaping Infant Fear Reactivity and Executive Functioning : Findings from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study (2017) Nolvi Saara
- Maternal postnatal psychiatric symptoms and infant temperament affect early mother-infant bonding (2016)
- Infant Behavior and Development
- Maternal prenatal stress and infant emotional reactivity six months postpartum (2016)
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Maternal alexithymic traits, prenatal stress, and infant temperament (2015)
- Infant Behavior and Development



