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Research Institute of Child Development and Education (RICDE) RICDE

H.J.M. (Merlin) Nieterau

PhD Candidate
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Preventive Youth Care
Area of expertise: Parenting, Parent-child interactions, Children's mental health and well-being
Photographer: Ron Kefferman
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 129
Postal address
  • Postbus 15776
    1001 NG Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    Merlin Nieterau is a PhD Candidate at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education.

    Her research investigates how parenting and parent-child interactions affect children's mental health. By studying families in their daily lives, she seeks to pinpoint the processes, from small moments to broader patterns, that may contribute to protective or risky pathways. These insights aim to inform more effective support for families.

  • Research

    Research methods 

    • Experience sampling methods (ESM)
    • (Individual Participant Data) Meta-analysis
    • Intervention Studies

    Current research projects

    • Opvoedperikelen [Perils of Parenting]: The goal of this project is to acquire a more in-depth understanding of the underlying networks of symptoms and risk and protective factors in individual families dealing with disruptive child behavior.
  • Teaching

    Bachelor 

    Master 

    • Opvoeding en Ontwikkeling [Parenting and Development]
    • Internship Supervision Master Students
    • Thesis Supervision Master Students 
      Programs: MA Preventive Youth Care, MA Youth at Risk, & MA (Forensic) Orthopedagogics 
  • Publications

    2025

    • Leijten, P., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Backhaus, S., Gardner, F., Groenman, A. P., Dekkers, T. J., van den Hoofdakker, B. J., Laas Sigurðardóttir, L. B., Liu, D., Luman, M., Mansur, L., Nieterau, M., van der Oord, S., Overbeek, G., Psyllou, C., Rienks, K., Schulz, S., & Weisz, J. R. (2025). Have parenting programs for disruptive child behavior become less effective? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70049
    • Nieterau, M., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Overbeek, G., Shaw, D. S., & Leijten, P. (2025). Daily Parental Responses To Disruptive Child Behavior: A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis. Child Psychiatry and Human Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-025-01856-w
    • Runze, J., Nieterau, M., Creasey, N. L., & Overbeek, G. J. (2025). Parenting and polygenic influences: Investigating gene-environment correlations in disruptive child behavior. Development and Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579425100254

    2024

    2023

    • Nieterau, H. J. M. (2023). An Idiographic Analysis of Daily Coercive Parent-child Interaction Patterns in Families with Children with Emerging Disruptive Behavior. Abstract from European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Turku, Finland.

    Talk / presentation

    • Nieterau, M. (invited speaker) (4-2025). Risk & protective factors of disruptive child behaviors: Insights from daily life, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

    Others

    • Nieterau, M. (visiting researcher) (2025). University of Massachusetts Amherst (visiting an external institution).
    • Nieterau, M. (organiser) (11-2024). VNOP-CAS Research Days 2024, Utrecht (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nieterau, M. (organiser) (11-2023). VNOP-CAS Research Days 2023, Utrecht (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nieterau, M. (participant) (2023). Modelling the Dynamics of Intensive Longitudinal Data, Utrecht. Ellen Hamaker and Noémi Schuurman (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • VNOP-CAS Research Days
      Member of the organizing committee
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