RESEARCH INTERESTS

Lifespan Development
- social and cognitive aspects of parent-child relationships
- effects of emotion on quality of parent-child relationships
- children's social and emotional development

My research interests centre on the social and cognitive aspects of parent-child relationships across the lifespan (e.g., feelings of control within the relationship, perspective taking abilities, goals that are pursued when interacting with the other person, and attributions that are made about their actions). More recently, I have also investigated how emotion affects the quality of parent-child relationships, with particular emphasis on the expression and control of emotions, and meta emotional philosophy (i.e., our thoughts and feelings about particular emotions - for example, do you think that anger is destructive and feel upset when it is expressed, or do you think that it is healthy to express anger, and not feel bothered by such displays?). For the most part, I have focussed on how these variables are associated with markers of relationship quality (in the case of older parent-adult child relationships) and children's social and emotional development.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Martini, T.S., Root, C.A., & Jenkins, J.J. (in press). Effects of child emotional response, child temperament, and parenting style on low and middle income mothers' regulation of negative emotion. Social Development.

Martini, T.S., Grusec, J.E., & Bernardini, S.C. (2003). Help given to older mothers by their adult daughters: Ways of initiating help and type of help given. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 57, 237-257.

Martini, T.S., Grusec, J.E., & Bernardini, S.C. (2001). Effects of interpersonal control, perspective taking, and attributions on older mothers' and adult daughters' satisfaction with their helping relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 15, 688-705.

Martini, T.S., & Dion, K.L. (2001). Developmental expectations of personal change for the self and others. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23, 21-28.

Grusec, J.E., Rudy, D.D., & Martini, T.S. (1997). The study of parenting cognitions: Some implications for understanding parenting behavior and children's internalization of values. In J.E. Grusec and L. Kuczynski, (Eds.) Parenting strategies and children's internalization of values: A handbook of theoretical and research perspectives. Toronto: Wiley.