Anchored in developmental psychology, our team's research interests revolve around the concept of reciprocal connections between social experiences in the first years of life and children's social, neurocognitive, and psychophysiological development. In particular, we are interested in carefully measuring various aspects of mother-child and father-child relationships so as to determine how they can allow for better understanding of the development of sleep rhythms, executive functioning, brain structure, and socio-emotional adjustment in normative child populations.

My research interests focus on sexual assault of children and adolescents and I am a member of the Research Center of Interdisciplinary Research on Marital Problems and Sexual Assault (CRIPCAS). Two lines of research emerge from my work. The first aims to understand the variability of life trajectories after sexual assault during childhood or adolescence, including the involvement of processes such as resilience or psychotherapy in subsequent psychological functioning. The second focuses on primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of sexual assault of children and adolescents, including the effectiveness of interventions to reduce the incidence of sexual assault among youth. 

I lead the Research Laboratory on the trajectories of health and resilience of sexually abused young people: TRAJETS. TRAJETS focuses on all the life trajectories of young people who have been exposed to sexual violence during childhood or adolescence. First, we want to document the consequences of sexual assault on the physical and mental health of young people. In doing so, we examine how sexual assault interacts with different life contexts to produce more or less harmful consequences for young people and how these consequences evolve in the short, medium and long term. 

Risk factors that overlap sexual abuse, such as abuse or neglect, and protective factors that may coexist with sexual abuse or assault, such as social support, are central to our studies. These risk and protective factors allow us to better understand what facilitates or hinders the development of young people when they have been sexually assaulted. 

Through our studies, we want to help build the resilience of young people, their families and their environments.

My current research focuses on the definition, the determinants and the outcomes of autonomy support (Grolnick & Ryan, 1989; Mageau & Vallerand, 2003) in hierarchical relationships in general, and in parent-child interactions in particular.

• To be autonomy supportive is to consider another (e.g., a child) as a separate individual who has unique needs and feelings and who deserves respect and self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000). 
• Autonomy support has often been operationalized using the following behaviors: (1) to acknowledge the other’s feelings, (2) to give a rational for rules and demands, and (3) to provide choice and opportunities for initiative taking (Grolnick, Frodi, & Bridges, 1984; Koestner, Ryan, Bernieri, & Holt, 1984).

I am also interested in looking at the other key interpersonal dimensions (i.e., involvement and structure) and how they combine with autonomy support to foster optimal functionning.

Finally, I am co-leader of the How to Project, whose goal is to evaluate the effects of the parenting program called "How to talk so kids will listen & how to listen so kids will talk". This program teaches parents how to offer a clear and consistent structure to their children, while supporting their autonomy and maintaining a warm interpersonal relationship.