María Francisca Morales Larrazabal

Thesis title: Psychosocial determinants of children’s internalising and externalising trajectories in a Chilean longitudinal birth cohort

Background

I graduated from the Universidad de Chile in 2016 with a first-class honours degree in Psychology, and a Diploma in Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents from a Constructivist Approach at the same institution. From 2014 to 2017, I worked as a research assistant with Dr Ivette González (Universidad de Chile) in an observational study of communicative interactions between mothers and their premature babies. In June 2018, I came to the University of Edinburgh to continue my postgraduate studies with a MSc in Children and Young People's Mental Health and Psychological Practice, which was funded by the Advanced Human Capital Program of the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT), Chile. Aiming to study the implications of perinatal mental health in children's development in a Chilean population based-cohort, I started a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Edinburgh in January 2020. My PhD is funded by the Chilean National Program for Graduate Studies (National Agency for Research and Development, ANID - former CONICYT).

Qualifications

  • MSc (Hons) in Children and Young People's Mental Health and Psychological Practice, University of Edinburgh, UK
  • PG Diploma (Hons) in Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents from a Constructivist Approach, Universidad de Chile, Chile
  • BSc (Hons) in Psychology, Universidad de Chile, Chile

Research summary

Following the developmental psychopathology and ecological frameworks, my research aims to identify different trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalising and externalising problems from early childhood over time using a Chilean population-based cohort (ELPI) and psychosocial factors related to group membership to differentiate children whose problems are particularly persistent, and subsequently inform targeted prevention and intervention programs according to each group.

Current research interests

Developmental psychology; Perinatal mental health; Population-based cohorts; Quantitative methodology.

Affiliated research centres

Conference details

  • Oral presentation at the "X Chilean Congress of Psychology" October 2015, Talca, Chile: "Differences in Communicative Interaction in the Mother-Child Dyad: an observational study in premature babies."
  • Poster presentation at  the "International Congress of Infant Studies" July 2020, Online Congress: "The impact of contextual, maternal and prenatal factors on receptive language in a Chilean cohort."

Morales, M. F., Farkas, C., Aristotelous, E., & MacBeth, A. (2020). The impact of contextual, maternal and prenatal factors on receptive language in a Chilean longitudinal birth cohort. Child psychiatry and human development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01091-5

PGR Representative  School of Health in Social Science: 2020-2021