Sylvana Côté is a full professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal and a Researcher at Ste-Justine’s Hospital. She heads the Observatory for Children’s Education and Health and the Research Group on Children’s psychosocial Maladjustment. She studies life trajectories, beginning in utero, leading to psychosocial and school adjustment in children and adolescents. She adopts a lifespan perspective to study the associations between early family adversity (e.g., socioeconomic disadvantaged, parental mental health problems) and poor child outcomes, and to test the efficacy of population-based prevention programs. Her work focusses on the prevention of 3 overlapping problems: psychosocial maladjustment, mental health problems, and academic difficulties. She has documented the conditions under which early childcare and education can foster children’s healthy development and reduce social disparities; and identified programs to improve the quality of childcare services offered to disadvantaged populations.
