Profile
Biography
Elizabeth Meins completed her first degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in Psychology in her final year. She stayed in Cambridge to complete a PhD in Developmental Psychology. After 16 years in the Department of Psychology at Durham University, she moved to York in 2013. Her main area of research focuses on caregivers’ ‘mind-mindedness’ and its role in predicting children’s development.
Career
- Staffordshire University, Lecturer, 1992-1997
- Durham University, Lecturer to Professor, 1997-2013
- Visiting Research Fellow, Macquarie University, 2002
Departmental roles
- Chair of Departmental Research Committee and Impact Lead
Research
Overview
My research interests all focus on how individuals’ social environment relates to their cognitive performance. Much of my research has reported on the positive impact of parents’ ‘mind-mindedness’ (their ability to ‘tune in’ to their young children’s thoughts and feelings) on children’s social-cognitive and social-emotional development. I also conduct research on how children’s private speech relates to their social environment and cognitive performance, and on how young adults’ attachment representations relate to biases in attention and cognitive processing.
Projects
Current grants: Maternal mind-mindedness: Transmission mechanisms and predicting development into early adulthood
Research over the last 20 years has shown how caregivers’ early mind-mindedness (attunement to their infants’ internal states) predicts a wide range of positive outcomes in the child. This ESRC-funded project will address two major outstanding questions: (a) what are the developmental mechanisms via which mind-mindedness in the first year of life impacts on children’s later social-cognitive development? and (b) does mind-mindedness continue to predict development into young adulthood?
Research group(s)
Grants
The majority of my research over the past 25 years has been funded by the ESRC, with additional funding from The Leverhulme Trust. In 2000, I received an outstanding contribution to research award from the Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology.
Collaborators
- Annie Bernier, University of Montreal
- Jean-Francois Bureau, University of Ottawa
- Stephanie Carlson, University of Minnesota
- Kathleen Corriveau, Boston University
- Marc de Rosnay, University of Sydney
- Charles Fernyhough, Durham University
- Simon Hackett, Durham University
- Paul Harris, Harvard University
- Chris Jones, Durham University
- Patrick Luyten, University of Leuven
- Carla Martins, University of Minho
- Cathy McMahon, Macquarie University
- Luna Muñoz-Centifanti, Durham University
- Chris Moore, Dalhousie University
- Elaine Reese, Otago University
- Dana Shai, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya
Available PhD research projects
I am happy to hear from prospective PhD students with an interest in any of my research areas.
Publications
Selected publications
- Meins, E., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Mind-mindedness coding manual, Version 2.2 (PDF
, 199kb) Unpublished manuscript. University of York, York, UK.
- Meins, E., Bureau, J.-F., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). Mother–child attachment from infancy to the preschool years: Predicting security and stability. Child Development, 89, 1022-1038.
- Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., & Centifanti, L. C. M. (2018). Mothers’ early mind-mindedness predicts educational attainment in socially and economically disadvantaged British children. Child Development. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13028
- Zeegers, M. A. J., Colonnesi, C., Stams, G.-J. J. M., & Meins, E. (2017). Mind matters: A three-level meta-analysis on parental mentalization and sensitivity as predictors of infant–parent attachment. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 1245–1272 . DOI: 10.1037/bul0000114
- Centifanti, L. C. M., Meins, E., & Fernyhough, C. (2016). Callous-unemotional traits and impulsivity: Distinct longitudinal relations with mind-mindedness and understanding of others. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57, 84–92.
Full publications list
See Google Scholar or the York Research Database.
External activities
Memberships
Member of the British Psychological Society and the Society for Research in Child Development
My research has informed the NSPCC’s All babies count and Minding the baby programmes and Baby steps perinatal education service. I am also working with clinical psychologists to deliver a mind-mindedness intervention programme to mothers hospitalised for a range of severe mental illnesses. This research was featured on Radio 4’s All in the mind.
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