Tina Malti

Area of Research

Professor Malti’s research focuses on social-emotional development and mental health in children experiencing varying levels of adversity. Based on this work and a humanistic approach to child development, she creates and tests interventions that help children overcome the negative effects of exposure to trauma and violence and cultivate kindness and ethical strengths. To achieve these goals, Dr. Malti conducts and directs multidisciplinary research, training, and policy efforts that capitalize on inclusive principles to reach every child. She and her team work closely with local and international communities and agencies to provide research-informed knowledge that can help nurture the development, wellbeing, and potential for kindness in children and adolescents from all walks of life.

As a scholar with a blended cultural heritage, Professor Malti feels fortunate to work with an extraordinarily dedicated, talented, and diverse team of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and inspiring colleagues in over 20 countries on five continents.

Profile

Dr. Malti is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, director of the Laboratory for Social-Emotional Development and Intervention, and founding director of the Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy at the University of Toronto Mississauga. 

In 2023, she has been named recipient of Germany’s most valuable research award, the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Child Development and Health, as the first child psychologist and female psychologist in the award’s history. She currently holds this chair at Leipzig University. 

She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 7: Developmental Psychology and Division 53: Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology), as well as a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.

Dr. Malti has won several awards for her work, including the Desmond Morton Research Excellence Award from the University of Toronto Mississauga, the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Research in Adolescence (SRA), and the New Investigator Award from the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA).

Tina Malti is president of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development.