Dieter Wolke

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Professor Dieter Wolke
Dieter Wolke Profile Picture.jpg Dieter Wolke Profile Picture.jpg
Born	19 March 1957 Aschendorf (Germany)
💼 Occupation	Professor of Developmental Psychology and Individual Differences
Known for	Research work on understanding early childhood influences on the development of mental health problems and quality of life.

Dieter Wolke (PhD, Dr. rer. nat. h.c. Dipl-Psych C. Psychol AFBPsS) is a developmental psychologist and known for his work on understanding early childhood influences on the development of mental health problems and quality of life. He is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Individual Differences at the University of Warwick Department of Psychology and at the Division of Health Sciences at Warwick Medical School since 2006.

Early Life

Wolke was born in Aschendorf, Germany as the youngest of three children. His parents were refugees during the second world war from Pomerania (now Poland). He never met his grandparents who died during or shortly after the second world war. He grew up in Papenburg where both of his older sisters still live. His early social roots are still firmly in Papenburg where he returns yearly to camp with his old school friends during Whitsun holidays.

Education

Wolke went to the Evangelische Volksschule Papenburg-Mittelkanal  for his primary education and his secondary education at the Gymnasium Papenburg and the Realschule Papenburg. For his high school education he attended the Telleta-Gross-Gymnasium in Leer, the first year it introduced co-education of girls and boys, and completed his Abitur in the Mathematics-Natural Sciences stream. He studied Psychology with Philosophy, Anthropology and Physiology at the Christian Albrecht-University Kiel from 1976 to 79 when he had a year abroad as a research student in the Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education, London (UK) supported by the German Academic Exchange Service. From 1980-1982 he continued his post graduate studies at the Christian Albrecht-University Kiel (Germany) and graduated with a Dipl-Psych degree. He earned his Doctorate of Philosophy as part-time student from the University of London Faculty of Science (college: Institute of Education) in 1989. 

Career

Wolke has worked at different colleges of the University of London as research assistant (Institute of Education (1983-84; King’s College Hospital London , 1984-85) and then as Research Fellow and Honorary lecturer at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in London  (1985-1990).  In 1990, he was appointed as Director of Psychology of the Bavarian Longitudinal Study at the Dr von Haunersches Kinderspital  of the University of Munich. He has been a Director of the ongoing BLS since then.  In 1995, he was appointed as Professor of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire , Department of Psychology, Hatfield (UK) and in 2002 as Professor in Lifespan Psychology at the University of Bristol Medical School  and Deputy Director of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children  (ALSPAC)). Before his appointment at the University of Warwick, he worked in the research funding sector (Scientific Director of the Jacobs Foundation, Zurich, 2004-2006) while holding Visiting Professorships at the University of Bristol and University of Zurich Institute of Psychology. 

Research

Wolke’s research is interdisciplinary (psychology, social and medical sciences), longitudinal and in the field of Developmental Psychopathology.

Early Infant Regulatory Problems

Wolke and his colleagues investigate whether and how early regulatory problems in infancy may have adverse long term consequences on mental health. Being able to self-regulate is a critical skill that infants develop, which allows them to self-soothe in response to changes in sensory stimuli and regulate sleep states. Difficulties in self-regulation such as excessive crying (Wolke D, Bilgin A, Samara M.,2017), sleeping disturbances and feeding difficulties are often labelled as infant regulatory problems and are among the most common problems reported by parents. Wolke has shown that early regulatory problems are associated with a trajectory of dysregulation across childhood and increased behaviour problems (Wolke D, Rizzo P, Woods S., 2002; Winsper C, Wolke D., 2014; Hemmi MH, Wolke D, Schneider S., 2011; Schmid G, Wolke D., 2014) . Three factors may potentially account for individual differences in early regulation including perinatal and neurodevelopmental factors, early parenting or genetic variations. Wolke and colleagues have shown that infant regulatory problems are predicted by neurodevelopmental problems (Schmid G, Schreier A, Meyer R, Wolke D., 2011) and that these interact with early parenting behaviour (Bilgin A, Wolke D., 2017) . Early interventions may reduce early regulatory problems

The Preterm Phenotype

Wolke and collaborators investigate the long term consequences of being born preterm (<37 weeks gestation) on the children and their families. Wolke and his collaborators identified a phenotype affecting around a quarter of those born very preterm (<32 weeks gestation). (Wolke D., 1998) . These include significant increased motor problems such as cerebral palsy, general cognitive deficits, learning difficulties, increased rate of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in particular attention problems (Johnson S, Kochhar P, Hennessy EM, Marlow N, Wolke D, Hollis C., 2016) ; increased anxiety disorder and depression disorder and increased rates of autistic symptoms and social relationship problems with peers (Heuser KM, Jaekel J, Wolke D.). These problems tend to last into adulthood, affect the health related quality of life (Baumann N, Bartmann P, Wolke D., 2016) of those born very preterm and their life chances in terms of economic independence (Basten M, Jaekel J, Johnson S, Gilmore C, Wolke D., 2015) , personality (Eryigit-Madzwamuse S, Strauss V, Baumann N, Bartmann P, Wolke D., 2015) and finding a life partner. The functional differences are related to alterations in brain anatomy, activity patterns and networks (Grothe MJ, Scheef L, Bäuml J, et al.). 

Wolke and his collaborators around the world are working on identifying ways to improve the care of preterm infants and supporting their development into adulthood.

Longterm consequences of Peer and Sibling bullying

Wolke and collaborators investigate the precursors and consequences of peer or sibling bullying. Wolke’s research has contributed to the now convincing evidence (Moore SE, Norman RE, Suetani S, Thomas HJ, Sly PD, Scott JG., 2017) that being bullied by peers increases the risk of physical (Copeland WE, Wolke D, Lereya ST, Shanahan L, Worthman C, Costello EJ., 2014) and mental health problems (Wolke D, Lereya ST, Fisher HL, Lewis G, Zammit S., 2014) , self-harm and suicide (Winsper C, Lereya T, Zanarini M, Wolke D., 2012) . Furthermore peer bullying is associated with difficulties in holding down a job and social relationships in adulthood (Wolke D, Copeland WE, Angold A, Costello EJ., 2013) . Wolke identified that both parenting as well as social disadvantage are associated with bullying victimization while bullies are found in all social classes and ethnic groups (Tippett N, Wolke D, Platt L., 2013) . Wolke and collaborators were one of the first to highlight that cyber-bullying nearly always occurs with traditional bullying and creates few new victims. Wolke and collaborators have developed new models of intervention against bullying (Sapouna, M, Wolke, D, Vannini, N et al.,2015) .

Wolke further investigates sibling bullying, a much neglected subject. Wolke and his colleagues showed for the first time that being bullied by siblings has long term adverse consequences on mental health into early adulthood (Bowes L, Wolke D, Joinson C, Lereya ST, Lewis G., 2014)

Awards, Impact and Achievement

• 2017: Elected as Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS)
• 2014:  Award of Honorary Doctorate in Natural Sciences (Doktor rerum naturalium honoris causa (Dr. rer. nat. h. c.)) by Ruhr-University Bochum awarded for contribution to psychological research.
• 2014: University of Warwick - Winner of Research Impact and Public Engagement Award - Faculty of Science for Prenatal and Family Precursors of Bullying Involvement in Childhood and their Consequences into Early Adulthood
• 2011: Institute of Mental Health - Prize for best scientific publication in 2010 (for Psychiatric disorders in extremely preterm children. Johnson S, Hollis C, Hennessy E, Kochhar P, Wolke D & Marlow N.).
• 2006: Award for Excellence in Research, MENSA Education & Research Foundation (for Stability in cognition across early childhood - A developmental cascade. Bornstein, M. H., Hahn, C. S., Bell, C., Haynes, O. M., Slater, A., Golding, J., Wolke, D., & the ALSPAC study team. ).
• 2005: Second Place, Outstanding Publication Award 2005, European Association for Research on learning and Instruction.
• 1988: Elected as Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society (AFBPsS)

Media and Public Speaking

Wolke is frequently invited to give keynote addresses at International Conferences on his research on bullying , preterm children’s development or infant regulatory problems. He has also given a TEDX lecture

He is often interviewed on TV, national and local radio and in national newspapers such as BBC News, The Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, The Independent and many others.

References

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