Welcome to the Parent-Child Interaction Lab at Colorado State!

The Parent-Child Interaction Lab is run by Dr. Erika Lunkenheimer in the department of Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State University.  We study various ways that parenting and parent-child interactions influence child development.  One particular area of study is interaction patterns.  We use a dynamic systems framework to study the influence of affective and behavioral patterns, such as the flexibility or predictability of behavioral sequences, on child development.  A second focus of study is regulation.  We examine how parent and child co-regulate their emotions, behaviors, and physiology in response to challenges, and how this, in turn, influences children's burgeoning self-regulation and related skills in early childhood.  Ultimately, we hope these investigations will inform basic research on children's normative and atypical developmental pathways, as well as the enhancement and tailoring of preventive interventions for stressed and overburdened families.