My research focuses on the factors that influence children's socio-emotional and cognitive development and what places some children at greater risk of struggling socially, academically or with their mental health. I am particularly interested in how social and biological processes interact in children's development, and how tracing these processes over time can help us understand the different pathways development can take and the differing outcomes children experience. I use a range of methods in my research, including longitudinal cohort studies, observational techniques for measuring family processes (attachment, parent-child interactions, children's temperament and play), quantitative and molecular genetics for examining genes and gene-environment interactions, and biological measurements for capturing peripheral physiology (e.g. cortisol, heart rate) and brain function (EEG, fMRI). My ultimate aim is to use learning from these kinds of studies to develop good policy to support children and families and find new and better ways to support children to thrive.