Shawn Kok is a junior researcher of the program group for developmental psychopathology at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education of the University of Amsterdam. He furthermore works as a youth psychologist in training for the MBO-Jeugdteam Amsterdam as part of the psychologist group of Levvel, one of the larger youth mental healthcare providers in the region. Here, Shawn is involved with diagnostics and treatment of youth in secondary vocational education (in Dutch known as ‘MBO’).

In his research, Shawn focusses on the mechanisms behind the development and treatment of psychopathology in youth on the individual level. To achieve this, he (mostly) applies techniques from the single-case design methodology, which allow for the in-depth assessment of one or a couple of individuals over a longer period of time. He furthermore works on the translation of research findings into clinical practice.

Shawn received his bachelor's degree in Pedagogical Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) in 2022 and hereafter pursued a combined masters program at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Here, he combined the research master’s in Child Development and Education (completed in 2024), with the masters’ in Clinical Development Psychology and Orthopedagogics (both still in progress). In his research thesis, Shawn investigated how multi-subject analyses of single-case data can be used to assess novel clinical interventions on a smaller scale.

Peer-reviewed publications (1)

• Maric, M., & Kok, S. I. (2023). How did the Treatment Work for Robin? And for Dylan? Studying Individual Youth Treatment Mediators Using Single-Case Experimental Designs. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 26(3), 721–726. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-023-00442-7  

Other publications (2)

• Kok, S. I. (2024). Treating Complex Paediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Through Parent-Based Intervention: A Single-Case Study Investigating a 15-Year-Old Boy With Contamination OCD [Master Thesis, University of Amsterdam]. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385457766
• Kok, S. I. (2024). A Tutorial on Single-Case Mediation Analysis Using R: An Application of Generalized Least Squares and Confidence Interval Estimation Methods [Tutorial Paper]. Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14632015