In an interview, Prof Harold, who recently took up his appointment as New Zealand's first professor of childhood studies, said it was not always appreciated that children and young people could be adversely affected by being exposed to high levels of parental conflict and hostility, and a lack of warmth, even where there was no domestic violence.
Irish-born Prof Harold (42) is the Alexander McMillan Chair and director of the University of Otago Centre for Research on Children and Families, previously known as the Children's Issues Centre.
He succeeds Prof Anne Smith, who has retired from her post as the centre's director.
He is a developmental psychologist and has the further distinction of holding a personal professorship in the Otago psychology department.
Prof Harold was previously a professor at the Cardiff University School of Psychology, in Wales.
He was the lead author in an innovative study of 230 schoolchildren (aged 11-13 years) living in the United Kingdom, which was published last year in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
The authors noted that this was the first paper to suggest that "children who assign self-blaming attributions relating specifically to their parents' marital arguments are at increased risk for low academic achievement."
The Otago centre is internationally recognised as a leader of multi-disciplinary research on the wellbeing and rights of children and young people.
Prof Harold had established an impressive track record of translating his research directly into policy and practice applications, Otago University officials said.
His work on inter-parental conflict led to the development of an intervention programme aimed at informing parents about the effects of inter-parental conflict on children.
This work informed Britain's Home Office in formulating its Domestic Violence Policy Framework Document last year.
Prof Harold was also commissioned by Wales' Children and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service to develop a risk-assessment pack for practitioners, aimed at identifying the psychological impacts on children of witnessing inter-parental conflict and violence.
