Our main research lines cover both normative and non-normative or atypical developmental trajectories, person-environment and (epi)gene-environment transactions, child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency, the role of family diversity in child and adolescent development, and the effectiveness, effective elements and working mechanisms of pedagogical interventions.

The research goals of RPCD are:

• to gain knowledge and advance theory on both normative child development and manifestation of mild-to-severe internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, and the concomitant child-rearing and educational problems across different social contexts;
• to gain knowledge and advance theory on the etiological processes underlying developmental risks for vulnerable infants, children, adolescents, and young adults, by examining transactions between risk and protective factors across social contexts;
•  to develop, evaluate and improve preventive interventions and orthopedagogical and forensic treatments that target different child upbringing contexts to decrease internalizing and externalizing problems.

The four research groups are:

• Preventive Youth Care
• Developmental Psychopathology
• Forensic Child and Youth Care
• Methods and Statistics

PhD Projects RPCD

• Empowering vulnerable youth to use social media as an information source on their  mental health issues | PhD candidate: Mieke Oldeman, MSc
• Changing peer norms to improve self-regulation in youth | PhD candidate: Maud Hensums, MSc
• Early prevention of child abuse: What works for whom? | PhD candidate: Anne Bijlsma, MSc
• Effective early intervention to prevent child abuse | PhD candidate: Jeanne Gubbels, MSc
• Social Trust, Interpersonal Relationships, and Behavior Problems during School Transitions | PhD candidate: Jiajun Mo, MSc
• Synchrony of emotional communication and pointing in infancy | PhD candidate: Eliala Salvadori, MSc
• The Curaçao Longitudinal Study on juvenile resilience and delinquency | PhD candidate: Agnes de Lima-Heijns
• The growth curve study | PhD candidate: Rosanne Sluiter, MSc
• When and why do parents stumble or thrive? | PhD candidate: Jolien Grolleman, MSc 
• When parenting gets under the skin | PhD candidate: Hannah Spencer, MSc

Other research projects RPCD

• Jeopardy
• Family Check-Up
• Using Virtual Reality to understand and treat aggressive behaviour problems
• The developmental roots of inequalities in education
• What’s Up? Virtual Reality screening to inform treatment for juvenile offenders