Konrad, C., Schneider, S., & Seehagen, S. (2026). Validation of the German version of the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ) and associations with infant development. Early Human Development, 222, 106629.
doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2026.106629

Children spend most of their early years sleeping. The ‘Bochum Baby Sleep Study’ aims to show exactly how a baby’s sleep influences their development and how it is linked to the health of the whole family. For this project, the Developmental Psychology team at Ruhr University Bochum is supporting families from pregnancy right through to their child’s second birthday. Expectant mothers who are interested can register to take part online. The research project will run until the end of 2028 and is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Link to the press release.

Together with several of our partners from the NAP project, Sabine Seehagen led a discussion on the topic of contextual factors affecting babies’ sleep at the International Paediatric Sleep Association Congress, held in Florence from 8 to 11 April 2026. Together with Jodi Mindell, Michal Kahn, Eva-Maria Kurz and Rebecca Spencer, and in dialogue with the participants, she used evidence-based arguments to debunk some myths surrounding the topic of infant sleep.

The Developmental Psychology team presented its research at the Babini Baby Fair in Dortmund from 6 to 8 March 2026. We had many interesting conversations with families and were able to recruit 80 new families for our studies..

Gulizar Tel has been awarded a grant: PR.INT – Project International: Research Stay & Lab Visits from the Research School at RUB. As part of their joint study, Gulizar Tel will spend August, under the supervision of Prof. Anette Sundqvist from Linköping University, investigating whether and how siblings and media use influence the development of theory of mind in children aged 3 to 6. In the process, she will gain insights into the administration and evaluation of Theory of Mind tasks and will continue to apply these in her own study upon her return to Germany.

Sabine Seehagen, Gulizar Tel and Carolin Konrad presented the latest findings from their research at the Developmental Psychology Section Conference in Giessen (1–4 September 2025). With a total of 170 participants, the four-day conference provided an excellent platform for professional exchange and networking within the community.

In March 2025, a kick-off meeting for the research project NAP – The infant sleep, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, took place at Ruhr University Bochum. Together with international partners from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, medicine and anthropology, the Bochum team will spend the coming years investigating the causes, characteristics and consequences of infant sleep

Carolin Konrad has been awarded a four-month short-term fellowship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for postdoctoral researchers. The fellowship will enable her to undertake a research stay at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) in Prof. Annette Henderson’s research group. As part of this international collaboration, she will carry out a research project investigating the effect of prior sleep on prosocial behaviour in young children.