Radboud Summer School course ‘Peer Relations and Interactions in Childhood and Adolescence’

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Radboud Summer School organizes a summer course on peer relations and interactions in childhood and adolescence from Monday July 1 to Friday July 5, 2019. During this interactive course you will gain extensive knowledge of past and current peer relations research. You will also learn to use state of the art research measures and paradigms to assess peer relations and interactions, and can discuss your own work.

The course will be taught by the members of the Peer Relations Lab at Radboud University (peerlab). Course leader is Prof. dr. Toon Cillessen.

Course credits (2ECTS) can be given for the course. Early Bird registration deadline: 1 March 2019. For more information, see: https://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/courses/2019/peer-relations-interactions-childhood-adolescence/

Call for applications for the 2019 EADP-EARA-SRA Summer School

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In 2019, EADP, EARA and SRA will again jointly organize a Summer School focusing on research on adolescence. The Summer School is a training ground for young scholars interested in adolescent development. The Summer Schools bring together established researchers, recognized for their expertise and teaching abilities with doctoral students from around the globe, for several intensive days of research training. The training includes exposure to innovative and creative research, as well as workshops focusing on professional skills. The summer schools have given students enthusiasm to search for scientific guidance outside of the borders of their countries and the walls of their universities.

The Summer School will be held in Greece from August 26 to 29 (just before the ECDP2019 conference), with arrival on August 25. The site for the school will be in Kalamata, a nice town of the Peloponnese peninsula. The summer school will be directed by Susan Branje, Lisa Kiang, and Katariina Salmela-Aro. The Senior Scholars participating this year include (in alphabetical order): Rob Crosnoe, Linda Juang, Tina Malti, Katariina Salmela-Aro, and Michiel Westenberg, and Ellen Hamaker as school methodologist.

We invite doctoral students in any part of the world to apply. A total of 24 students (8 per association) will be selected on the basis of their academic records, research experience, letters of recommendation, and overall evidence of scientific aptitude and competence. Students who apply should have their doctoral research planned or underway, but not completed, so that they can benefit from the critiques given during the school. Students will have to cover their own travel costs, with accommodations from August 25 to 29 and meals from August 26 to 29 paid for by the School. US students (whose travel costs are expected to be substantially higher) can opt for an SRA travel fellowship.

HOW DO YOU APPLY?

 Send the following documents in English, saved as Word (.docx) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files.

  1. Your curriculum vitae (labeled yourname.cv.docx)
  2. A short description of your dissertation topic and progress so far (1-2 pages double spaced), (labeled yourname.dissertation.docx)
  3. A recommendation letter from your supervisor (labeled yourname.docx).
  4. You need to be a member of EARA, EADP or SRA upon acceptance for the school. Indicate your (anticipated) membership(s) in your application.

Send the files, by email, to the 2019 EADP-EARA-SRA Summer School committee through Minke Krijnen, m.a.krijnen@uu.nl.

Applications must be received by May 1st, 2019. All applications received by that date will be evaluated by members of the EADP-EARA-SRA Summer School Committee, with notifications emailed before the early bird registration deadline of the ECDP2019 conference, May 31, 2019.

Current Perspectives on Adolescent Risk Taking Symposium Leiden

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Dear VNOP members,

Please see the invitation below to a symposium on adolescent risk-taking, celebrating Neeltje Blankenstein’s PhD defense.

Current Perspectives on Adolescent Risk Taking symposium

When: February 15th 2019, 13.30-17.00

Where: Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Lange Sint Agnietenstraat 10, Leiden

https://rijksmuseumboerhaave.nl/bezoek/

On February 14, 2019, Neeltje Blankenstein will defend her dissertation: “Risky business? Behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying risky decision-making in adolescents” at Leiden University. As part of the festivities surrounding her defense, the Brain and Development Research Center is organizing a Current Perspectives on Adolescent Risk Taking symposium on February 15, 2019.

Symposium Schedule
13:30 – 14:00 Welcome with coffee & tea
14:00 – 14:05 Introduction
14:05 – 15:00 Keynote: Eva Telzer, University of North Carolina
15:00 – 15:20 Barbara Braams, VU University Amsterdam
15:20 – 15.40 Break with coffee & tea
15:40 – 16:00 Tycho Dekkers, University of Amsterdam
16:00 – 16:20 Neeltje Blankenstein, Leiden University
16:20 – 16:40 Simon Ciranka, Max Planck Institute Berlin
16:40 – 17:00 Wrap up and discussion

Attendance is free, but space is limited, so we encourage you to register by filling out this online registration form: https://goo.gl/forms/VBiJVONmjkrxgXRf1

Stay tuned for updates on our website: https://www.brainanddevelopmentlab.nl/index.php/news/331-february-2018-neeltje-s-defense-and-adolescent-risk-taking-symposium

We look forward to seeing you there!  

Anna van Duijvenvoorde, Eveline Crone, and Neeltje Blankenstein

PhD position

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We are looking for a highly capable, eager, and intrinsically motivated PhD candidate. The project is embedded in the Developmental Psychobiology Lab (DPBLab; PI: Prof.dr. Carolina de Weerth) at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in Nijmegen (the Netherlands). This position is funded by a personal VICI grant awarded to de Weerth and funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The grant is on healthy children’s gut microbial colonization in relation to stress early in life and later brain functioning, behavior, and cognition.
The aim of this PhD project is to test a new psychobiological model of human development within an ongoing longitudinal study in healthy children (BIBO study). In this model, early life gut microbiota mediates the associations between stress early in life and adolescent brain, behavior, and cognition. As previously shown in mice, adolescence may constitute an additional sensitive period in development, next to early life, in which dysregulation of the microbiota-gut-brain axis may contribute to what are often first manifestations of psychopathology. In this study, we will hence study the independent and potentially combined contributions of stress and microbiota in early life and in adolescence on brain structure, brain function, behavior problems, and cognitive capacities.
Application deadline: February 15th
Additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from Prof. Carolina de Weerth
The full advertisement and application procedure can be found via the link below:
https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/vacancies/64862-phd-candidate-in-developmental-psychobiology

Associate Professor of Orthopedagogics Position at Erasmus University Rotterdam

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The Department of Psychology, Education & Child Studies of the Erasmus University Rotterdam invites applicants for an Associate professor position in Orthopedagogics. We are looking for someone who can bring demonstrable work experience in the area of management. In addition, we are looking for someone who has the ambition to become a full professor in a few years.

Your past and future research needs to fit within the context of the research program of Clinical Child and Family Studies [Ortho- en gezinspedagogiek] Self-regulation in context. In this program adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation is studied from pregnancy to emerging adulthood.

You will be teaching in the Bachelor’s and master’s degree programme within the Department of Psychology, Education & Child Studies (Section Clinical Child and Family Studies) in the area of orthopedagogics, including supervision of research students.

Tasks:

The position involves 60% teaching activities and 40% research time. The core tasks include:

  • participating in teaching at a bachelor’s and master’s level. Teaching involves also individual supervision of internships and research theses; workgroups supervision, lectures and independent coordination of parts of the curriculum;
  • supervising PhD candidates;
  • the design and supervision of studies in the area of Self-regulation in context;
  • carrying out and supervising research within the programme;
  • management tasks with regard to education/research;
  • publishing research findings in high impact international scientific journals
  • initiating and contributing to the acquisition of substantial external research funding for the benefit of the research programme.

Expectations:

We are looking for someone who:

  • has a PhD-degree in a relevant area and experience in the area of Clinical Child and Family Studies,
  • is effective and efficient, has excellent social skills, and is a team player.
  • has proven work experience in the area of management and organization.
  • has excellent teaching skills, as evidenced by positive teaching assessments, and experience in designing and coordinating academic courses in the area of Clinical Child and Family Studies,
  • has scientific creativity and productivity, as shown by a substantial list of publications in renowned international peer-reviewed journals in a relevant field of research;
  • has a demonstrable record of research grant acquisition;
  • has international collaboration and visibility;
  • has ample experience with supervision of graduate students;
  • has an eye for innovation of teaching methods and is prepared to contribute (within a team) to the optimization of the quality of teaching;
  • holds a Dutch Teaching Qualification (BKO) and a Senior Qualification in teaching or research or is willing to acquire this qualification(s) in the near future;
  • masters English and Dutch at an academic level – Non-Dutch applicants should be willing to acquire proficiency in Dutch within 2 years.

Additional information about the vacancy can be found on academic transfer:

https://aa.academictransfer.com/employer/EUR/vacancy/51791/lang/en/

Deadline for applications: January 20, 2019

For further information you can contact Prof. dr. Peter Prinzie, professor of Orthopedagogics, Tel: +31-104082598, or e-mail: prinzie@essb.eur.nl

PHD position Tilburg University

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Depression, substance use, and minor delinquency steeply increase during adolescence. Parents are in a unique position to counter these adaptation problems, but each family is different. Tailoring advice to the family-specific needs and strengths may help parents in their important task of promoting adolescent behavioral and emotional well-being. Unfortunately, theoretical knowledge of how parenting processes operate at the level of individual families is missing. The ADAPT-program, of which this PhD-position will be part, aims at obtaining these fundamental theoretical insights into how parenting promotes adolescent well-being in individual families.

The project has a strong focus on applying new methods to this question, but it also entails data collection among high school students. It will use smart phones to obtain highly frequent, real-time, multi-informant assessments of parent-child interactions (i.e., Experience Sampling Methods). To analyze these intensive data, the project involves first applications of state-of-the-art data-analytical approaches to intensive longitudinal data (e.g., Continuous-Time structural equation modeling; time series models for dyadic data). Thus, in order to quantify the complex reality of parenting adolescents at the level of individual families, the PhD-student will embrace technological and data-analytical innovations.

The project is funded by a NWO-VIDI grant, awarded to Loes Keijsers. The PhD-student will be part of a larger project-team working on solving similar theoretical problems and developing applications to translate novel theoretical findings into e-health applications. Moreover, (s)he can rely on a broader network of expertise of the Tilburg Experience Sampling Center for analytical and methodological support.

Deadline: 22 Dec

Additional information about the vacancy can be found on academic transfer:
https://www.academictransfer.com/en/51360/phd-student-at-developmental-psychology-08-fte-4-years/

 

Registration VNOP CAS Researchdays 2018 open!

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Dear VNOP members.

Registration for the VNOP CAS Research Days 2018 is open!

The Research Days are organized annually by members of VNOP and CAS and are interesting for all researchers within the field of developmental psychology and pedagogics. The days provide a unique opportunity for young researchers to develop themselves and to present their work.

For further information and to register, go here
Registration is open until November, 9, 2018

For any questions, please contact us at vnopcas@gmail.com

Kind regards,
Jochem Spaans
On behalf of the 2018 VNOP CAS Researchdays organizing committee

Deadline VNOP-CAS Researchdays extended to 1st of October

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Dear VNOP members,

The deadline for abstract submissions for the VNOP-CAS Researchdays (taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of November) has been extended to the 1st of October, 2018.

For submission guidelines and submitting your abstract, visit the Researchdays website here: https://vnopcasresearchdays.sites.uu.nl/submission-2018/

Please note that:

  • All presentations will take place on the 23rd of November. The program on the 22nd of November consists of workshops for PhD students and a social activity.
  • These Research Days are interesting for all researchers working in the field of developmental psychology or pedagogics. You do not need to be a member of VNOP or CAS.

For any questions, please contact us at vnopcas@gmail.com

Kind regards,
Jochem Spaans
On behalf of the 2018 VNOP CAS Researchdays organizing committee

PhD position Groningen (Dutch)

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Young refugee students in primary education

Jonge vluchtelingleerlingen vormen een kwetsbare groep in het primair onderwijs. Voor leerkrachten is het lastig is om goed aan te sluiten bij de onderwijsbehoeften van deze leerlingen. Allereerst is er met name in de jongste groepen van het primair onderwijs een grote behoefte aan een geïntegreerde onderwijsmethode voor het leren van de Nederlandse taal (NT2). Ten tweede blijken vluchtelingleerlingen volgens hun leerkrachten vaak moeite te hebben om tot leren te komen. Ze observeren dat er in internationale klassen meer conflicten zijn, dat er minder optimaal leergedrag is en vermoeden dat er vaak sprake is van lijdensdruk (‘distress’) of trauma.

In dit project wordt een NT2-lespakket voor groep 1-2 samengesteld, doorontwikkeld en op effectiviteit onderzocht middels van een combinatie van kwalitatieve en kwantitatieve data. Taalverwerving en sociaal-emotioneel welbevinden zijn van cruciaal belang voor de ontwikkeling en het leren op school en zijn met elkaar verweven. Het voorgestelde onderzoek biedt daarom een combinatie van toegepast onderzoek en een fundamenteel, praktisch relevant onderzoek naar de Nederlandse taalverwerving en haar relatie met het welbevinden van jonge vluchtelingleerlingen.

Bij dit onderzoek binnen de afdeling Ontwikkelingspsychologie van de RUG wordt samengewerkt met de afdeling Pedagogiek, GGZ-instelling Molendrift en het bedrijf Bereslim.

Functie-eisen

Wij zijn op zoek naar een kandidaat die voldoet aan de volgende kwalificaties:
• een afgeronde (research-)masteropleiding in een relevantie richting (bijvoorbeeld Ontwikkelingspsychologie, Klinische Psychologie, (Ortho)pedagogiek)
• aantoonbare deskundigheid op het gebied van ontwikkelingsprocessen in de kindertijd
• goede onderzoeksvaardigheden (analyse van kwantitatieve gegevens, interview- en observatievaardigheden)
• affiniteit/ervaring met kinderen in de leeftijd 4-8 jaar en/of hun ouders/leerkrachten
• affiniteit/ervaring met vluchtelingen of kinderen met een migratieachtergrond strekt tot de aanbeveling
• goede verbale en schriftelijke vaardigheden in het Nederlands en Engels
• organisatietalent, doorzettingsvermogen, zelfstandigheid en het vermogen om samen te werken in het onderzoeksteam en met deelnemende scholen.

reageren kan via: https://www.rug.nl/about-us/work-with-us/job-opportunities/overview?details=00347-02S0006KZP&cat=wp

PhD jobs

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Two PhD positions

Developmental Psychobiology Lab

Prof.dr. Carolina de Weerth is looking for two highly capable, eager, and intrinsically motivated PhD candidates to join her Developmental Psychobiology Lab (DPBLab). This position is funded by a personal VICI grant awarded to Prof. de Weerth and funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The grant is on healthy children’s gut microbial colonization in relation to stress early in life and later brain functioning, behavior, and cognition.

PhD1: The aim of this project is to test a new psychobiological model of human development within an ongoing longitudinal study in healthy children. In this model, early life gut microbiota mediates the associations between stress early in life and adolescent brain, behavior, and cognition. As previously shown in mice, adolescence may constitute an additional sensitive period in development, next to early life, in which dysregulation of the microbiota-gut-brain axis may contribute to what are often first manifestations of psychopathology. In this study, we will hence study the independent and potentially combined contributions of stress and microbiota in early life and in adolescence on brain structure, brain function, behavior problems, and cognitive capacities.

PhD2: The aim of this project is to study two potential causal mechanisms through which maternal psychological stress, as an early life stress-inducing factor, can negatively affect infant microbial colonization and development. The first mechanism that will be studied is the pathway from maternal prenatal stress to infant microbiota, mediated by maternal prenatal diet and her own microbiota. The second mechanism that will be studied is the pathway from maternal postnatal stress to infant microbiota mediated by breast milk composition (lactational programming). For this study, pregnant mothers and their infants will be followed from mid-pregnancy until the child reaches age 1.

Responsibilities

You will be part of the 2018 VICI grant ‘How gut bacteria and stress shape child development’. You will join the very dynamic and highly collaborative Developmental Psychobiology Lab (DPBlab; web page: dpblab.org), a multidisciplinary group of senior and junior researchers. You will help design and carry out fMRI, behavioral, psychological, and biological assessment rounds in adolescents (PhD1) and behavioral, psychological, and biological assessment rounds in pregnant women and infants (PhD2) within longitudinal studies. Data collection will be in the lab and/or the field. You will analyze the data and report the results in scientific journals and conferences, and in a doctoral dissertation.

We expect:

  • a Master’s degree in psychology (e.g., developmental psychology, developmental psychopathology, clinical psychology, neuroscience/neuropsychology) or related discipline;
  • a Research Master’s degree is an advantage;
  • a profound interest in fundamental and developmental psychobiological research;
  • advanced statistical skills and experience in scientific writing, or at least a keen interest and motivation to acquire such skills;
  • expertise in relevant computer packages (e.g. SPSS, R, Limesurvey, etc.);
  • experience with MRI data collection and analysis (PhD1);
  • (research) expertise in testing children/adolescents, and in longitudinal studies, is an advantage;
  • good organizational skills; data-management skills are an advantage;
  • advanced proficiency in spoken and written English (please write your application in English);
  • good command of the Dutch language;
  • good social and communication skills;
  • a collaborative nature, pleasure in team work;
  • an energetic and productive attitude to work hard;
  • flexibility, independence, perseverance, and resilience to stress;

The appointment is for five years (0.8 fte). An official announcement of these positions will be out shortly. If you are interested in these PhD positions please contact Carolina de Weerth, at c.deweerth@psych.ru.nl. She will then send you the official announcement and application instructions when available.

Tentative schedule for application procedure (dates subject to change)

Deadline for applications: 15 October. Selected applicants will be invited to an interview that will take place on November 5. The best candidates from the first round will be invited to a second interview on November 12, which will also include an assessment component. Starting date is January 1, 2019.

Call for Abstracts VNOP-CAS Researchdays 22-23 november 2018

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Dear VNOP members,

Abstract submission is now open for this year’s VNOP-CAS Researchdays, taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of November.

Are you a PhD student working in the field of developmental psychology or pedagogics? Submit your abstract now! We are very interested in your research. You can choose between a poster presentation, paper presentation or symposium. Deadline for the abstract submission is September 16, 2018.

You can submit an abstract and view submission guidelines here.

Please note that:

  • All presentations will take place on the 23rd of November, the program on the 22nd of November consists of workshops for PhD students and a social activity.
  • These Research Days are interesting for all researchers working in the field of developmental psychology or pedagogics. You do not need to be a member of VNOP or CAS.

If you have any questions, please contact the organizing committee at vnopcas@gmail.com.

 

PhD position, UvA

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PhD candidate – Changing peer norms to improve self-regulation in youth

Research PResearch Priority Area Yield of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is looking for a PhD candidate for the project ’Changing peer norms to improve self-regulation in youth’. The project will start in September 2018 and will be supervised by prof. dr. Geertjan Overbeek, dr. Eddie Brummelman, dr. Helle Larsen and dr. Wouter van den Bos.riority Area (RPA)

Yield conducts multidisciplinary research on the bio-ecology of human development, from infancy to young adulthood, with perspectives from Medicine, Psychology, Pedagogics, Education, Communication, Economics, and Psychometrics. With its (NWO funded) Graduate Programme and its associated PhD training programmes, RPA Yield provides an attractive environment in which PhD students are trained in multidisciplinary research on human development.

The hired candidate will join the programme group of Preventive Youth Care (dept. of Child Development and Education), led by prof. dr. Overbeek and will also be part of the department of Developmental Psychology. The Departments of Child Development and Education and Developmental Psychology are located in in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG).

Project description

Adolescence is a turbulent phase of development. Around the transition to adolescence, self-regulation failures such as aggression typically emerge or worsen. These self-regulation failures come at great cost for individuals, communities, and society at large. How can these failures be prevented so as to help youths thrive? This project examines whether self-regulation can be improved by addressing something that youths care deeply about: the social norms within their peer group. The aim is to conduct a randomized-controlled trial and follow-up experiments to investigate how changing social norms may affect self-regulation, and to examine how this may create effective behaviour change and improve mental and physical health in youths. Moreover, this project examines how specific changes in youths cascade into healthier peer networks (increased feelings of safety, less conflicts and bullying, and fewer signs of physical ill-health). The project combines insights from pedagogics, developmental psychology, and social psychology, and will shed new light on how we can help youths flourish.

Tasks

  • Participation in the PhD-programme of the Graduate School of Child Development and Education and RPA Yield;
  • independently carrying out research, writing scientific articles, and completing a PhD dissertation within four or five years;
  • active participation in the programme group of Preventive Youth Care, and the Research Institute of Child Development and Education;
  • participating in conferences, workshops, seminars, and other scholarly activities.

Requirements

The PhD candidate should have the following credentials:

  • graduated with excellent results on a research-based Research Master or Master thesis in (Ortho)Pedagogics, Psychology, or a closely related discipline;
  • interest in children and adolescents, and how we can use knowledge from psychology and pedagogics to help them flourish;
  • experience in carrying out quantitative research, and interest in learning social network analyses;
  • excellent communication and academic writing skills (Dutch and English);
  • excellent organization and project coordination skills;
  • experience/interest in working with teachers and schools and children and adolescents;
  • knowledge of/interest in peer relations development both in childhood and in adolescence;
  • knowledge of/interest in school-based peer interventions;
  • ability to work in an interdisciplinary team.

Further information

Deadline 25 June 2018.

See vacancy for more information.

Developmental courses at Radboud Summer School 2018

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Nijmegen, 13-17 August 2018

(early bird registration deadline: 1 April)

Peer Relations and Interactions in Childhood and Adolescence

Peers are powerful socialization agents, contributing well beyond the collective influences of family, school and neighborhood. This highly interactive course focuses on the importance of peers for child development. During this course you will have ample opportunity to learn about the past, present and future of peer relations research. You will also learn to use state of the art research measures and paradigms to assess peer relations and interactions. The course will be taught by the members of the Peer Relations Lab at Radboud University (peerlab). Course leader is Prof. dr. Toon Cillessen.

Early Programming: How Early Life Shapes Human Development

During the prenatal and early postnatal years neurobiological and behavioral development proceeds at a breathtaking pace and is highly sensitive to environmental influences. Early experience shapes early and long-term developmental outcomes.  This highly interactive course looks into exciting and recently discovered environmental factors and mechanisms that shape early and long-term human development; using evolutionary, biological, psychological and social perspectives. Course leader is Prof. dr. Carolina de Weerth.