Wolke’s research is interdisciplinary (psychology, social and medical sciences), longitudinal and in the field of Developmental Psychopathology. His key interests include developmental pathways leading to developmental psychopathology, social and emotional development, biological at risk children (very preterm children), school and sibling bullying, infant regulatory problems (crying, feeding, sleeping) and parenting. Wolke currently heads the Warwick Lifecourse & Neonatal Group brought together to work on the following projects:
Warwick Lifecourse & Neonatal Group
PROJECT selected by ERC, funded by ukri
Born pre-term: How early adversity and social environment affect life course development
The €2.4 million ERC Advanced Grant PRETERM-LIFECOURSE project (underwritten by UKRI), led by Professor Dieter Wolke studies how early adversity affects development into adulthood and whether age related function, disease and the time we may die is already determined in the womb and at birth.
Infant2Adult
New grant 2024 looking into Neurobiological mechanisms of adverse mental health outcomes following early regulatory problems
Early problems with bodily regulation in infants, like sleeping, crying and/or feeding problems, can adversely impact long-term behavioural and emotional development. The proposed project utilises phenotypic and neuroimaging data from three large longitudinal studies to explore how these early issues affect the brain and mental health across the lifespan, aiming to provide new insights and prevention strategies.
A collaboration with the University of Maribor, EMC, University of Tartu, TUM and University of Warwick funded by FLAG-ERA
Surviving Crying
Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of a Service to Support the Mental health and Coping of Parents with excessively Crying Infants.
PI: Prof Jayne Brown (De Montford University); Prof I St James-Roberts (Institute of Education, University College London. Co-PI: S Morris, E Boyle, C Brookes, N Bhupendra Jaicim, A Willis, D Wolke, T Brugha, C Adams, M Rumbelow, L Wolstenholme
The Bavarian Development Study examines social adjustment and quality of life after preterm birth. The current team are working on Phase 6.
The purpose of the Big Baby Trial is to find out if starting labour earlier than usual, at 38 weeks, makes it less likely that shoulder dystocia will happen in women whose babies appear to be bigger than expected.
R2D2-MH is a 5-year project that aims to identify risk and resilience factors associated with neurodevelopmental diversity. Through co-creation, R2D2-MH aims to deliver solutions tailored to the needs of neurodivergent people and their families, healthcare givers, clinicians or policy makers.
RIPTIDE
Resilience in preterm infants during development
Sabrina Twilhaar has a Horizon MSCA grant to investigage that Preterm birth rates are rising. Although survival rates have increased, long-term outcomes have not improved over the last decades. RIPTIDE aims to provide insight in amenable factors that promote resilience in childhood and adolescence.
The MRC funded EPICure studies are longitudinal cohort studies of babies born at extremely low gestational ages across the country in 1995 and in 2006. To date, follow up for the cohort has been through to 19 years and to 3 years for the 2006 cohort.
The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a study of the causes of disease among mothers and children. MoBa began to recruit pregnant women in 1999. Fathers were also invited. In 2008, the goal of more than 100 000 pregnancies was reached. Biological material and questionnaire data have been collected since the 17th week of pregnancy which makes the study unique.
Key Projects:
Main Research Areas:
Other Projects
- The MILESTONE Project
- Understanding Society and the UK Longitudinal Study
- Prenatal and family precursors of bulling involvement in childhood and their consequences into early adulthood
- The Impact of Premature Birth on Mathematics Achievement and Schooling
- PRiME Study
The Recap Preterm Team (2018).