In developmental psychology, we are interested in understanding what changes—or remains stable—in people’s behaviour and experiences as they grow older, and what role childhood experiences play in these processes. The project “Children Become Adults” is the continuation of a longitudinal study that began 30 years ago and explores these questions. Participating families from the Regensburg area were invited multiple times by a research team led by Prof. Dr. Gottfried Spangler. The study focused on families’ life circumstances and on the attachment between mother and child. For this purpose, the behaviour of the participating children was observed together with their mothers, and the children’s temperament and personality were described by the mothers.
Today, we are interested in how early experiences with caregivers influence the participants, who are now adults. The participating families are now in new phases of life: the children have fully entered adulthood and have their own perspectives on their childhood. We therefore aim to learn: How are the participants today, and how are they doing? How does the relationship between them and their parents change with increasing age? Which influences have shaped their lives? The parents themselves have also experienced many changes over the past 30 years. We would like to know how they are doing today and how they experience the relationship with their adult children.
We are currently analysing data from interviews and questionnaires collected between 2023 and 2025.
If you have any questions about the project, please feel free to contact Julia Festini (julia.festini@fau.de).
