Valentina Lucia La Rosa

Valentina Lucia La Rosa serves as a Research Fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Catania, under the scientific direction of Elena Commodari. Her research focuses on the intersection of psychological development and sociocultural contexts during critical life stages.

Her primary research areas examine symbolic representations of pregnancy and motherhood across gestational and postpartum periods, with emphasis on cross-cultural comparisons of women's experiences in European populations. She investigates sociocultural variables influencing maternal health outcomes, mother-child attachment formation, and psychological impacts of global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic on childbirth experiences. Methodologically, she employs mixed approaches including qualitative analysis, cross-sectional studies, and longitudinal assessments to explore developmental psychology within diverse family systems.

Recent publications demonstrate consistent thematic focus on maternal-infant well-being, with escalating attention to pandemic-related psychological challenges since 2020. Her work bridges clinical psychology and public health through analyses of attachment mechanisms, sociocultural determinants of health, and crisis response in vulnerable populations. Cross-cultural methodology remains central to her examination of how societal structures shape individual psychological experiences during reproductive transitions.