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Stella Tsotsi

Stella Tsotsi

Job title
  • Associate Professor
Visiting address
  • Pilestredet 32, 0166 Oslo
  • Office number: N050.115
Phone
  • Office: +47 672 35 948
E-mail
  • stella.tsotsi@oslomet.no
Affiliation

About

I am primarily interested in risk factors that may make children and adolescents more susceptible to developing psychopathology. These risk factors involve: 1) child self-regulation (e.g., executive functions, emotion regulation, temperament); 2) parental factors, such as mental health issues and aspects of parenting (transgenerational transmission of mental health issues); 3) biological markers, such as genotype and epigenetic processes. I am also interested in devising and implementing early interventions to assist the more cognitively disadvantaged children in buffering the risk. I am a trained clinical neuropsychologist and have research experience working in large multidisciplinary cohort studies focusing on the above-mentioned research interests.

My current research involves examining the co-coccurrence of aggression and internalizing difficulties in children and adolescents and the role of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in the association between early life stress, aspects of parenting and child socio-emotional difficulties.

I collaborate with researchers in Montreal and Ottawa (Canada), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Saarbrücken (Germany), Manchester (UK) and Singapore in understanding how parental mental health and parenting shapes children’s emotional competence and susceptibility to psychopathology.

I am a peer reviewer for various journals such as the Journal of Affective Disorders, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and Infant and Child Development.

Field of study

Neuropsychology   Development Psychology   Mental Health   Mental health services

Research groups

Publications and research

Scientific publications

Svendsrud, Hedvig; Bekkhus, Mona; Lund, Olaf; Shai, Dana; Spencer, Rose; Smith, Lars; Moe, Vibeke; Tsotsi, Stella ; Ullebø, Anne Karin; Fredriksen, Eivor (2026). Does expectant fathers' attachment style or depressive mood relate to their embodied mentalizing capacity of their 12-month-old infant?. Acta Psychologica. Vol. 263.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106224

Ngoh, Gwendolyn; Sim, Lit Wee; Tsotsi, Stella ; Khng, Kiat Hui; Setoh, Pei Pei; Law, Evelyn Chung; Lee, Kerry; Tan, Ai Peng; Chen, Helen Yu; Chong, Yap-Seng; Rifkin-Graboi, Anne (2025). Grandparental care and early childhood development: A decade’s worth of insight from three Singaporean cohorts. Developmental Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0002083

Tamnes, Christian K.; Bekkhus, Mona; Eilertsen, Maja; Nes, Ragnhild Bang; Prydz, Monica Beer; Ystrom, Eivind; Aksnes, Eira Ranheim; Andersen, Synøve Nygaard; Ask, Helga; Ayorech, Ziada; Baier, Tina; Beck, Dani; Berger, Eirik Jerven; Bjørndal, Ludvig D.; Boer, Olga D.; Bos, Marieke G. N.; Caspi, Avshalom; Cheesman, Rosa Catherine Gillespie; Chegeni, Razieh; Cortés-García, Laura; Demange, Perline A.; Ebeltoft, Joakim Coleman; Edvoll, Maud Clemson; Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem; Eilertsen, Espen Moen; Fang, Yuan; Ferschmann, Lia; Fluit, Sam; Folstad, Siri Hausland; Fredriksen, Eivor; Gashi, Liridona; Gustavson, Kristin; Hansen, Thomas; Hofgaard, Live Skow; Karl, Valerie Christine; Kozák, Michal ; Krogshus, Kristian G.; Liu, Jinrui; Lyngstad, Torkild Hovde; MacSweeney, Niamh; Maes, Hermine H. M.; Mayerhofer, Lilian Juliane Kozlowski; McAdams, Thomas Andrew; Moffitt, Terrie E.; Naseri, Nasimeh; Nilsen, Thomas Sevenius; Norbom, Linn B.; Nygaard, Egil; Oftedal, Aurora; Pedersen, Willy ; Qin, Qi; Rodríguez-Cano, Rubén; Skirbekk, Vegard Fykse; Smajlagic, Dinka; Solberg, Ole Martin; Tandberg, Anneli Desire; Teulings, Irene Johanna Elisabeth; Torvik, Fartein Ask; Tsotsi, Stella ; Ulset, Vidar Sandsaunet; Vira, Emily Gabriela; Røysamb, Espen; Soest, Tilmann von (2025). The nature of the relation between mental well-being and ill-being. Nature Human Behaviour. Vol. 9.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02319-x

Amundsen, Vaarin; Gjesmoe, Amalie; Andreassen, Einar; Bølstad, Evalill; Severinsen, Yvonne; Viana, Karine Porpino ; Bjørk, Rune Flaaten; Nygaard, Egil; Bekkhus, Mona; Tsotsi, Stella (2025). Alcohol Use and Parental Socialization of Emotion in a Population-Based Sample. Parenting, science and practice.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2025.2465988

Ngoh, Gwendolyn; Sim, Lit Wee; Tan, Ai Peng; Tsotsi, Stella ; Lee, Kerry; Chan, Jerry K.Y.; Meaney, Michael J.; Rifkin-Graboi, Anne (2025). Young children’s preferences for their mothers: concurrent predictors and correlates. Attachment & Human Development.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2025.2467104

Creasey, Nicole; Schuurmans, Isabel; Tsotsi, Stella ; Dafina, Serena; Baltramonaityte, Vilte; Felix, Janine F.; Neumann, Alexander; Page, Christian Magnus; Tollenaar, Marieke; Bekkhus, Mona; Walton, Esther; Cecil, Charlotte (2025). Prenatal stress, epigenetically-assessed glucocorticoid exposure at birth, and child psychiatric symptoms: A prospective, multi-cohort study. Psychoneuroendocrinology. Vol. 175.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107388

Low, Ann; Yu, Yue; Sim, Lit Wee; Bureau, Jean Francois; Tan, Ngiap Chuan; Chen, Helen; Yang, Yang; Cheon, Bobby; Lee, Kerry; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian; Tsotsi, Stella ; Rifkin-Graboi, Anne (2023). Maternal distress and parenting during COVID-19: differential effects related to pre-pandemic distress?. BMC Psychiatry. Vol. 23.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-04867-w

Oftedal, Aurora; Tsotsi, Stella ; Kaasen, Anne; Mayerhofer, Lilian Juliane Kozlowski; Røysamb, Espen; Smajlagic, Dinka; Tanbo, Tom Gunnar; Bekkhus, Mona (2023). Anxiety and depression in expectant parents: ART versus spontaneous conception. Human Reproduction. Vol. 38.
https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dead133

Tsotsi, Stella ; Goh, Shaun; Coplan, Robert J.; Bølstad, Evalill; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Smajlagic, Dinka; Bekkhus, Mona (2023). Co-occurrence of internalizing difficulties and aggression in early childhood and risk of mental health problems in middle childhood. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Vol. 47.
https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254231187902

Rifkin-Graboi, Anne; Tsotsi, Stella ; Syazwana, Nadhrah; Stephenson, Mary C.; Sim, Lit Wee; Lee, Kerry (2023). Variation in maternal sensitivity and the development of memory biases in preschoolers. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. Vol. 17.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1093619



See all publications


These publications are obtained from Norwegian Research Information Repository. The list may be incomplete.

Dissemination

Oftedal, Aurora; Tsotsi, Stella ; mayerhofer, lilian; Kaasen, Anne; Smajlagic, Dinka; Bekkhus, Mona (2022). Maternal and paternal anxiety and depression in pregnancies using assisted reproductive technology compared to spontaneous conception. ISSBD . ISSBD .
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4526228

Smajlagic, Dinka; Tsotsi, Stella ; Gjerdevik, Miriam; Page, Christian Magnus; Zayats, Tetyana; Austerberry, Chloe; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Lyle, Robert; Magnus, Per Minor; Gjessing, Håkon K.; Corfield, Elizabeth Claire; Havdahl, Alexandra; Andreassen, Ole; Bekkhus, Mona (2022). Parent-of-origin effects in childhood aggression. World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics. International Society of Psychiatric Genetics.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4957653

Tsotsi, Stella ; Goh, shaun; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Smajlagic, Dinka; Coplan, Robert; Bølstad, Evalill; Bekkhus, Mona (2022). The co-occurrence of emotional difficulties and aggression in early childhood and the risk of later mental health outcomes: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort. ISSBD . ISSBD .
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4114982

Tsotsi, Stella ; Yang, Yang (2022). Master Your Feelings: Emotional Competence in Early Childhood Parent-Related Antecedents and Child Outcomes. Tan, Oon Seng; Poon, Kenneth K.; O'Brien, Beth Ann; Rifkin-Graboi, Anne (Ed.). Early Childhood Development and Education in Singapore. p. 217-240. Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7405-1_11

Tsotsi, Stella ; Abdulla, Nurshuhadah; Li, Chen; Chong, Yap Seng; Richmond, Jenny; Saw, Seang Mei; Kwek, Kenneth; Gluckman, Peter D.; Meaney, Michael J.; Holbrook, Joanna D.; Karnani, Neerja; rifkin-graboi, anne (2015). Fetal DNA methylation of cortisol-related genes and infant neurobehavior at 6 months: The role of antenatal maternal anxiety. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.07.484

Tsotsi, Stella ; Kopsida, Eleni; Paschalidou, Marina; Gelagoti, Maria; Milonas, Ioannis; Kosmidis, Mary (2005). Humour appreciation in patients with multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3417205



These publications are obtained from Norwegian Research Information Repository. The list may be incomplete.
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