The past few days we interviewed several of our researchers about their various studies during Dutch Bio Science Week. They answered questions such as what impact their research has on our future and with whom they have established valuable collaborations.
Shelley van der Veek
Shelley van der Veek is Associate Professor at Instituut Pedagogische Wetenschappen, and prominent member of the Leiden Healthy Society Center.
Shelley, please describe your research in five key words?
Parental support; parenting strategies; health within families; early child development; healthy eating habits.
Within your area of expertise, what challenges do you currently see to the present and future of health and wellbeing in society?
Parents have a large influence on the health and wellbeing of their children – our future generation - from the day of conception. As pedagogues and psychologists, we aim to support parents in the challenges childrearing brings. However, when you look at the media, society tends to “blame” parents for so many things: they cannot seem to do it “right.” Recently I read two articles published within one week, one claiming we as parents "work too much" and do not pay enough attention to our children, the other claiming parents "care too much," hovering over our children as helicopters and not giving them enough space to make their own mistakes. Parenting is a tough job, and simultaneously the most important one we will ever have. Supporting parents effectively in navigating this demanding task is essential to the health of our future generation.
How does your research contribute to a healthy society?
I chair the research group Parenting, Child Care and Development at Education and Child Studies. Together, we study both the fundamental processes of caregiving, and how this fundamental knowledge can be translated into concrete parenting support programs. We work together with societal partners and parents in an effort to design effective parental support that fits the needs of parents, be it while they cope with an excessively crying infant, have to deal with angry toddlers that refuse to eat their vegetables, or are confronted with questions on how to help their young adolescent navigate the world of social media.
Who do you enjoy working with at the Leiden Healthy Society Centre and why is this collaboration important?
I enjoy working with every professional that supports parents on a day-to-day basis, as well as the municipality. When we as health care professionals, policy makers, researchers and educators can find each other easily, we can find the best solutions to create a healthy society.
Carlijn Bergwerff
Carlijn Bergwerff is associate professor at the Instituut Pedagogische Wetenschappen, and recently appointed director of this Institute. She is also chair of the programme group Clinical Neurodevelopmental Studies, who will also be speaking during the DBSW.
Carlijn, please describe your research in five key terms.
Virtual reality; child development; clinical practice; trauma; intervention.
Within your area of expertise, what challenges do you currently see for the present and future of health and wellbeing in society?
Both in my work at Leiden University and my work as psychologist, I see that many children, adolescents, and young adults are struggling with mental health problems. The rise in the use of technology can, on the one hand, be seen as a threat to mental well-being. For instance, risky social media use and risky gaming have been related to mental health issues. However, technology can also be seen as an opportunity to improve mental well-being, for instance when smartphone apps and virtual reality are being used to develop innovative and motivate clinical interventions.
How does your research contribute to a healthy society?
Our research aims to contribute to a safe and stimulating environment in which children can develop in their own way into healthy and resilient adults. Within my own research team, we examine the effects of digital interventions for youth. For instance, we have developed an intervention to reduce feelings of shame in traumatized adolescents, using virtual reality. Other digital interventions aim to improve social functioning in children or to improve the understanding of parents of traumatized children. Using technology, we thereby aim to improve mental well-being in families.
Who do you enjoy working within the broad network of Leiden Healthy Society Centre and why is this collaboration important?
I enjoy collaborating with a wide range of people, varying from researchers to virtual reality developers, and from students to clinicians. In Leiden we collaborate with researchers from different disciplines to answer questions derived from practice (schools, mental health care institutions). This collaboration is extremely important to me, so that we use different perspectives in solving problems that are relevant to society.
Wilco van Dijk
Wilco van Dijk is is a trained psychologist and assistant professor at the Institute of Child and Education Studies, with a particular interest in the social-cognitive development of infants.
Wilco, can you describe your research in five key terms?
Financial stress; wellbeing; social exclusion; citizens’ perspective; systemic changes.
Within your area of expertise, what challenges do you currently see in the present and future of health and wellbeing in society?
In tackling complex societal challenges such as health and wellbeing, behavioural scientists must employ both I-frame and S-frame interventions. I-frame interventions target individual-level solutions, aiming to change personal behaviours. In contrast, S-frame interventions address systemic solutions, considering the broader context and necessitating regulatory and policy changes. The pivotal question is how to effectively integrate these approaches within behavioural science and policy-making.
How does your research contribute to a healthy society?
Our research reveals a negative relationship between financial problems and psychological wellbeing, mediated by financial stress. Financially vulnerable households are particularly prone to experiencing the adverse psychological effects of financial stress. Promoting buffer savings, preventing avoidable debts, and enhancing control over one's financial situation are potential strategies to reduce financial stress and improve mental health, especially for financially vulnerable households.
Who are you currently collaborating with at the Leiden Healthy Society Center, and why is this collaboration important?
Collaborating within a network of scientists, practitioners, citizens, and policymakers offers a comprehensive perspective on complex societal challenges. This approach increases the likelihood of studying relevant questions scientifically and ensuring that policies derived from research findings resonate with citizens' experiences.
Szilvia Biro
Szilvia Biro is a trained psychologist and assistant professor at the Institute of Child and Education Studies, with a particular interest in the social-cognitive development of infants.
Szilvia, what five key words best describe your research?
Baby's, sociale cognitie, hersenontwikkeling, individuele verschillen.
Within your area of expertise, what challenges do you currently see for the present and future of health and wellbeing in society?
Face-to-face interactions and communication between parents and their infants are essential for healthy early development of various social, cognitive and language skills. Parents these days seem to look at their smartphones a lot while they are spending time with their babies. This might lead to suboptimal interactions and potential disruption of necessary developmental processes.
How does your research contribute to a healthy society?
The first 1000 days are crucial for the healthy development of children. My research focuses on social-cognitive and brain development during infancy. I try to understand how babies think and learn about the world around them. I aim to discover what the optimal circ*mstances and cues are for them to learn the best and what environmental factors influence the quality of their development.
Who are you currently collaborating with at the Leiden Healthy Society Center, and why is this collaboration important?
While I focus mostly on infants themselves, it is very important to take a larger perspective within which infants grow up to be able to understand all factors relevant for healthy development. Prevention and, if necessary, intervention work best when knowledge comes from multiple disciplines and areas. Researchers and organizations that are involved in family settings, day-cares, adoption, fostering, medical issues and atypical development, etc. need to work together.
Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam is assistant professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Institute of Psychology, and an esteemed member of the Knowledge Center Anxiety and Stress in Youth! and the Leiden Healthy Society Center.
Janna Marie, could you describe your research in five key terms??
Anxiety, youth, development, neuro-imaging, interventions.
Within your area of expertise, what challenges do you currently see in the present and future of health and wellbeing in society?
Neuro-imaging research, for example using MRI scans, has and continues to give us important insights into the neurobiology of anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety disorder. I feel it’s important to take the next step now, and investigate how we can translate this fundamental knowledge into novel interventions. That’s why I am currently exploring the potential of real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback, which is an innovative technique enabling individuals to ‘train’ their own brain. This work is supported by grants from Medical Delta and the ’Nationale Wetenschapsagenda / Young NeurolabNL’ and I am very grateful for the opportunity to set up this new line of research in Leiden!
How does your research contribute to a healthy society?
Social anxiety is a prevalent and chronic disorder, which remains hard to treat effectively. With my work, I am to gain fundamental knowledge about the neurobiological characteristics of anxiety to develop interventions that contribute to the well-being of socially-anxious youth.
Who are you currently collaborating with at the Leiden Healthy Society Center, and why is this collaboration important?
I really like working in interdisciplinary teams, including experts from various disciplines like Psychology, Psychiatry, Child Psychiatry, and Radiology. All these disciplines are represented within the Leiden Healthy Society Centre – collaborations that make our work stronger and more innovative. I just received the J.J. Groen prize for interdisciplinary research, which is of course a very inspiring and motivating experience!
Marieke Bos
Marieke Bos is an assistant professor in the unit Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Institute of Psychology, and a groundbreaking researcher in the field of mental health of adolescents.
Marieke, what five key terms best describe your research?
Youth, Anxiety, Mental Wellness, School, Brain
Within your area of expertise, what challenges do you currently see for the present and future of health and wellbeing in society?
Children and adolescents are experiencing increasing health problems. This is both a societal and individual problem. I see many opportunities with initiatives such as the Leiden Healthy Society Center to further cooperation between researchers, policy, municipality, schools and all kinds of other organisations, to integrate research results into society and hopefully contribute to a healthier life for all.
How does your research contribute to a healthy society?
In my research, I investigate why some children develop/experience mental health problems whereas others do not. My team and I try to understand the reasoning by analysing neurobiological mechanisms, such as the impact of hormones on pubescent brain development. These insights are then used to improve the prevention of and intervention in mental health issues.
Who do you enjoy working with within the broad network of Leiden Healthy Society Centre and why is this collaboration important?
Within LHSC I work for KAS (Knowledge Center Anxiety and Stress in Youth) and the Gemeente Leiden. I very much enjoy being a bridge between science and society with KAS, and am convinced that this kind of collaboration leads to more insight into each other's work. Such collaboration can in turn lead to better support for one another in our common mission to improve the mental well-being of children and youth (of Leiden and beyond).
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