Gelişimsel psikopatolojide ebeveyn ve çocuk özellikleri

Developmental psychopathological approach argues for the importance of examining the pathways for both typical and atypical development to increase understanding of pathological as well as normative functioning. This dissertation includes three research papers investigating important topics in developmental psychopathology. The first paper examines the role of basic cognitive representational abilities (see-know understanding and internal state understanding), and both verbal and non-verbal communication skills in social competence in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD); the second paper is a meta-analysis study which examines the effectiveness of the intervention programs with parental involvement that aim to alleviate obesity or overweightedness in children; and the third paper focuses on an important concept for child developmental outcomes: maternal sensitivity, and its cross-cultural relevance across mothers and professionals (i.e., clinicians working with children and their mothers) in six different cultures (i.e., Turkish and Dutch majority, and Turkish-Dutch, Antillean-Dutch, Surinamese-Dutch, and Moroccan-Dutch ethnic minority). The results of the first study showed that socially competent behaviors of children with ASD were positively related to their non-verbal communication skills when cognitive representation and verbal communication skills were controlled for. The second study revealed that interventions targeting childhood obesity/overweightedness with parental involvement were effective in the short run, but not in longer term follow-ups. Interventions were found to be more effective if they targeted one modality of intervention (i.e., either by providing educational materials or interactive intervention sessions) as compared to providing multiple modalities. Finally, the results of the third study indicated that the beliefs of mothers from different cultures about "ideal parenting" are very similar to the concept of sensitive parenting in the literature and the beliefs of professionals. These results had important applied implications. The results of the first study suggested that interventions targeting better social relations in children with ASD might benefit from including trainings for non-verbal communication skills. The second study implied that interventions for childhood obesity/overweightedness might benefit from being conducted within single modalities as opposed to targeting multiple modalities. And the findings of the third study implied that sensitive parenting is a cross-culturally applicable concept for both mothers as well as clinicians working with parents and children, and the intervention programs targeting maternal sensitivity might be well received by mothers from different cultures. These findings may be useful for future intervention and prevention programs