As a researcher in the field of child development, my aim is to contribute to the healthy development of children and adolescents and to create a positive living and learning environment for them. I work towards a 'kinder' world for youths to grow up in, online and offline. 

In doing so, I place great importance on collaborating with children and adolescents, not only focusing on the individual, but also considering crucial environmental factors (such as classroom norms, the influence of social media, and the [evolutionary] function of behaviors within groups).

My specialization lies in the field of bullying in (secondary) schools. Here too, I explore the function of bullying behavior: what are important affordances, how does it impact the motivation to bully, and can we use this knowledge to reduce such behavior? In my research, I also focus on anti-bullying interventions and examine whether specific components of interventions (do not) work well for particular subgroups of youths. It is vital to take individual differences into account, as one size does not fit all.

In my work, I utilize various research methods. For instance, I integrate existing knowledge (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, individual participant data-meta-analysis), test new hypotheses (experimental paradigms, micro-trials), and gain valuable, in-depth insights from children and adolescents themselves (focus groups, content-analyses).

Expertise and research fields (Keywords)

• Goals and Gains of Bullying
• Anti-Bullying Interventions
• Adolescent Development
• Self-Regulation
• Harmful Social Behaviors
• Social Media (Influences)

Current research projects

1. Cousin Kevin: On Bullying Motivations, Goals, and Affordances—And How we Should Intervene

Collaborators: Geertjan Overbeek, Brechtje de Mooij, Minne Fekkes, and Liina Björg Laas Sigurðardóttir

Project description:  Most children bully not out of a lack of social skills, but because they instrumentally pursue dominance and peer group status. It follows that to effectively remediate bullying, we have to change the peer group norm so that it signals the unacceptability and ineffectiveness of bullying. We are the first to study this in a global IPD meta-analysis of 39.000+ youths participating in RCTs of anti-bullying programs, and a micro-trial in which we isolate prosocial peer norms and positive peer roles as putative effective elements of an anti-bullying approach.

2. Misinforming YOUth? Scrutinising youths’ perceptions and experiences of misinformation

Collaborators: Aqsa Farooq, Elske van den Hoogen, Sophie Morosoli

The project focuses on understanding how Dutch youth (aged 16-21) experience and navigate misinformation.

Research grants & honours

• NWO Open Competition M (awarded to Prof. Dr. G. Overbeek)

Research methods

• Meta-analyses (among which Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling, and Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis)
• Systematic Reviews (Meta-Review)
• Experimental and Intervention Studies (among which micro-trials, and experimental paradigms)
• Qualitative Methods (among which content-analysis, and focus-groups)