Parenting and Child Development (MSc)

Why choose this specialisation?

Everyone will agree that it is highly important to promote optimal child development from the very start of life. Parents and professional caregivers have a profound influence on the socioemotional and cognitive development of children through their caregiving. The master’s specialisation Parenting and Child Development focuses on understanding the exact nature of this influence and on preventing child and family problems by fostering optimal caregiving.

By focusing on prevention, it differs from the clinically oriented master’s specialisations that concentrate on how to reduce problems in children and caregiving after the problems have developed. Focusing on prevention is extremely relevant and beneficial in today’s society where waiting lists for treatment as well as health care costs continue to grow. If you want to take a pro-active approach towards child and family problems by promoting a healthy caregiving environment, the master’s specialisation Parenting and Child Development is the ideal choice for you.

The master’s specialisation Parenting and Child Development focuses on child development in the context of different caregiving circumstances. The courses cover both normative and problematic caregiving, ranging from sensitive and warm parenting to abuse and neglect, and from stable family circumstances to divorce and temporary foster care. An important part of the curriculum is the study of evidence based prevention and intervention programmes to improve caregiving qualities of parents and professional caregivers.

On campus education

Our teaching takes place on campus and not online. You are trained for a social profession, in which interactions with children, parents, educators, teachers, organizations, policy makers and teammates are key. We believe that social skills are honed through extensive interaction with teachers and fellow students during your education. In this way, you learn to cooperate with others and to define your own role in that cooperation. You will work on other important competencies too, such as your ability to extract information directly "live" from lectures, working groups and interviews. We expect professional behavior from you in which you consider not only your own perspective, but also the perspective of the other, such as your teacher, fellow student or participant. All these skills you can later apply in your profession as an educator.