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.
- Fathers' prenatal attachment representations and the quality of father-child interaction in infancy and toddlerhood. (2021)
- Journal of Family Psychology
- The Paternal Brain in Action: A Review of Human Fathers' fMRI Brain Responses to Child-Related Stimuli (2021)
- Brain Sciences
- The validity of the Language Environment Analysis system in two neonatal intensive care units (2021)
- Acta Paediatrica
- Close Collaboration with Parents intervention improves family-centered care in different neonatal unit contexts: a pre-post study (2020)
- Pediatric Research
- An educational intervention for NICU staff decreased maternal postpartum depression (2019)
- Pediatric Research
- Experiences of interactive ultrasound examination among women at risk of preterm birth: a qualitative study (2019)
- BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
- Key factors supporting implementation of a training program for neonatal family- centered care - a qualitative study (2019)
- BMC Health Services Research
- Vanhempien osallistamisesta hyötyä vastasyntyneen sairaalahoitoon (2019)
- Lääkärilehti
- Ammattilaisten varhainen tuki kannattelee perhettä (2018) Kevyt Pienokainen – Keskosuudesta vanhemmille, läheisille ja hoitohenkilökunnalle Ahlqvist-Björkroth Sari
- Communication between healthcare professionals and parents is a key factor in involving parents in neonatal intensive care (2018)
- Acta Paediatrica
- Vanhemmuuden ennenaikainen alku (2018) Kevyt Pienokainen – Keskosuudesta vanhemmille, läheisille ja hoitohenkilökunnalle Ahlqvist-Björkroth Sari
- Challenges for transition into early parenthood : Prenatal depressive symptoms, marital distress, and premature birth of an infant (2017) Ahlqvist-Björkroth Sari
- Close Collaboration with ParentsTM Intervention to Improve Parents' Psychological Well-being and Child Development: Description of the Intervention and Study Protocol (2017)
- Behavioural Brain Research
- Vanhempien osallistuminen keskosen hoitoon (2017) Keskosen hoito ja kehitys Sari Ahlqvist-Björkroth , Anna Axelin, Liisa Lehtonen
- Initiation and exclusivity of breastfeeding: association with mothers' and fathers' prenatal and postnatal depression and marital distress (2016)
- Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica
- Mothers' and fathers' prenatal representations in relation to marital distress and depressive symptoms (2016)
- Infant Mental Health Journal
- Mother's marital satisfaction associated with the quality of mother-father-child triadic interaction (2016)
- Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
- Vuorovaikutuskylvyn terapeuttinen hoitomalli vahvistaa vanhemman ja lapsen suhdetta (2016)
- Psykoterapia
- Intercorrelations and developmental pathways of mothers' and fathers' loneliness during pregnancy, infancy and toddlerhood - STEPS study (2015)
- Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
- Nurses' Perspectives on the Close Collaboration with Parents Training Program in the NICU (2014)
- MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing