Previous work experience
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My main research focus was the role of peer norms in adolescent friendship processes. Dissertation title: "They get the power! Consequences and antecedents of aggressive, prosocial, and academic popularity norms in adolescent classrooms". Find my dissertation here.
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Spirit! is an institute for Youth Care. Tasks: Qualitative data collection and analyses, research on foster care institutes
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I worked as researcher and clinical psychologist at Altrecht. I developed and provided Social Skills Training and Floorplay for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and monitored the effectiveness of these trainings.
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Providing foster care for children who cannot live at home due to adverse circumstances.
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Tasks: data-collection and cleaning, teaching Methods & Statistics, supervising bachelor-thesis students
Scientific Education
Awards & Grants
Research Mission
My research mission is to identify how positive relationships with peers can protect against (the adverse consequences of) bullying. From my PhD onwards, I have developed a clear research line on the impact of peer norms in adolescent development, combining insights from education (classroom context, academic achievement), sociology (micro-macro processes, peer influence processes, social norms), developmental psychology (aggression, prosociality), and cutting-edge statistics (social network analysis, cross-lagged panel analyses).
My studies convincingly show that popular peers set the norm for what behaviors are considered appropriate, and that these norms influence adolescents’ friendship choices (who is an attractive friend?) and behaviors (how should I behave?), such as bullying, but also more positive, prosocial behaviors. I also found that norms affect the wellbeing of different types of students, and that victims in more positive classrooms may feel worse than victims is more negative classrooms.
For the upcoming years, I received a Rubicon funding and a postdoctoral fellow funding from the Academy of Finland to examine whether it helps victims when they are being defended by their peers.
Besides these topics, I strongly advocate open science. In October, I will organize an open science workshop in Finland. I also strive to translate my research findings to practice. I recently recorded a podcast and am regularly interviewed by news papers or magazines. I am a frequent speaker at international conferences, including EARA, SRCD and SRA. In total, I have provided over 15 presentations, including one invited presentation. I am on the editorial board of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.
Teaching
I take great pleasure in teaching and have gained substantial experience since my first appointment as teacher assistant at 2011, for which I teached statistical courses and Summer Schools, and supervised 15 Bachelor thesis students (one of them was nominated for the Swanborn Price). I also supervised the research-internship of 30 master students, for instance by coordinating data-collection activities. I designed and provided lectures for the Bachelor course “Risk behavior and Substance Use in Adolescence” and provided working group meetings.
As postdoc, I supervise master thesis students (one of them is nominated for the Jan Brouwer Price, and one won the Gadourek Price) and became a co-promotor of three PhD students.
