Sari Ahlqvist-Björkroth
Psychologist, Docent/ Associate Professor
Transition to parenthood; early parent-child relationship and its assessment; depressive symptoms in the perinatal period; effects of neonatal hospitalization on parent-infant closeness and separation; early parenting interventions; family-centered neonatal care
APPLE research (https://sites.utu.fi/apple/en/); SCENE research group (https://sites.utu.fi/scene/)
I am a psychologist specializing in psychotherapy (2011), a doctor of psychology (2017) and an associate professor (docent) of clinical and developmental psychology (2022).
Currently, I work as a university lecturer at the Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology. In addition to this, I manage my own research projects and supervise dissertations. I also actively collaborate in several national and international research projects.
My research focuses on the effects of psychosocial and environmental factors on early parent-child relationships and attachment formation in the perinatal period. I am also interested in how internal representations of the unborn child and parenthood are formed during pregnancy and how they relate to postpartum parenting. I am particularly interested in this process for fathers, as very little is known about it.
I am particularly interested in the development, implementation, and effectiveness of interventions and practices based on theories on developmental psychology. For example, I have developed the Close Collaboration with Parents intervention for neonatal intensive care teams and the Interactive Ultrasound intervention for depressed pregnant women.
My teaching at the university focuses on teaching clinical psychology. My teaching responsibilities include, for example, courses on interaction and self-reflection skills, mental health disorders, and an advanced studies course on early family relationships and child development. I am also a responsible teacher at a multi-professional teaching clinic.
I am also responsible for the training process for the Close Collaboration with Parents intervention when it is implemented in a new hospital setting.
- Mothers’ and Fathers’ Loneliness During Pregnancy, Infancy, and Toddlerhood. (2013)
- Psychology and Education -Orangeburg-
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Raskausajan mielikuvat vanhemmuuden ja lapsen kehityksen ennustajina (2013)
- Psykologia
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal ) - Vanhemman kiintymyssuhderepresentaatiot ja vanhempi-lapsi suhde (2013)
- Psykologia
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Closeness and separation in neonatal intensive care (2012)
- Acta Paediatrica
(A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal ) - Marital Satisfaction and parents' prenatal attachment representations: individual and interparental effects (2012)
- Infant Mental Health Journal
(A4 Refereed article in a conference publication ) - Relations between maternal attachment representations and the quality of mother-infant interaction in preterm and full-term infants (2010)
- Infant Behavior and Development
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Maternal depression is associated with mother–infant interaction in preterm infants (2008)
- Acta Paediatrica
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Interactive skills of infants with their high-risk mothers (2005)
- Nordic Journal of Psychiatry
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - An early report on the mother–baby interactive capacity of substance-abusing mothers (2001)
- Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)