Welcome to my website!
My name is Lydia Laninga-Wijnen. I am a researcher and university teacher, specialized in the role of social relationships (school, parents, peers) in youth mental health.
My work is driven by a clear mission: to create and strengthen social environments that promote well-being, resilience and equal opportunities for all youth.
I have successfully coordinated several international research projects and secured competitive funding to support them.
Current Affiliations
My main position is at the University of Turku (Finland) at the department of INVEST Psychology. Here, I work as Senior Research Fellow on various projects that identify how parents, peers, and schools contribute to adolescent mental health and resilience. I recently have been awarded a major funding to establish the HIPES project, in which I aim to test the prevalence inflation hypothesis while expanding it with a social lens.
In addition, I work part-time at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), at the department of Interdisciplinary Social Science. I coordinate a large-scale data-collection on youth societal participation and political engagement, and I am involved in various studies (e.g., time trends in same-sex attitudes, effects of smartphone bans, prevalence inflation hypothesis).
