The Department of Developmental Psychology at Utrecht University seeks a postdoctoral Researcher for supporting and advancing the Dynamics of Youth research domain “Thriving and Healthy Youth” (2022-2026). The position consists of a research part and a programme development/organization part.

The research part
Child and youth mental and physical health sets the stage for future life outcomes. Yet, mental and physical health are not self-evident. For
example, psychological and epidemiological research focusing on maladaptive functioning indicates that each year up to 28% of Dutch youth experiences mental health problem. At the same time, a single focus on problems does not do justice to the multi-facetted nature of child and youth health. Instead, to gain a more complete picture researchers as well as child-care workers and policy makers should focus more on adaptive functioning. That is, in addition to acknowledging problems, we should focus on what youth can do, for example in terms of navigating personal, societal, and social developmental milestones and activities. Such a focus has the potential to contribute to healthy and thriving youth development. The current research project will integrate multi-disciplinary knowledge on both maladaptive and adaptive features to take a next step in understand youth resilience and promoting care to foster our future generations.

Specifically, with the current research project we aim to benefit from data collected within existing cohort-structures to identify factors that (help) explain how children and youth thrive. We are open to examining a range of different factors, dependent on the expertise and interest of the post-doc. These may include, but are not limited to personality characteristics, play/leisure activities, life stories/narrative, stress/adversity/deprivation, biopsychosocial processes, biological factors/(stress)physiology. 

The program development/organization part
From 2022 onwards, the UU strategic theme Dynamics of Youth will be organized in four research domains. One of those domains is Thriving and Healthy Youth. The domain is responsible for driving and deepening the interdisciplinary exchange on key issues related to Thriving and Healthy Youth. Furthermore, the research domain will reach out to society and involve the community, stakeholders, societal partners, educational institutes and of course, youth themselves.

This startup phase of the domain offers ample opportunities for discussing and creating challenging goals, new structures, pioneering projects, and building strong communities. We will take on a radically new perspective, in that we provide ‘free playtime’ for (young) researchers to inspire and get inspired by other scholars from different disciplines, and by practitioners and learners with different backgrounds and from various (geographical) contexts.

Building such a new structure calls for an open and creative mind – and this also goes for the activities to be developed in the research domain. These can vary from discussions through symposia, sharing papers, creating funding opportunities, or developing community building events, to larger, more structural working communities that themselves organize a range of activities and build more structural networks, including societal partners, on various knowledge clusters within the domain. At the same time, we will use and build on existing cohort structures including a variety of samples (e.g., population, psychiatry, medical).

The postdoctoral scholar will collaborate closely with the three domain chairs (Dr Odilia Laceulle - Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Dr Heidi Lesscher – Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Dr Sanne Nijhof – University Medical Center Utrecht), the scholars working in this domain, other domains, societal stakeholders, community-based partners, youth, and child- and youth care institutes to:

• actively and creatively work towards setting and reaching the goals for the research domain;
• contribute to conducting research (typically on existing cohort data) and producing scientific publications;
• co-develop ways to share results and communicate with societal partners and youth involved;
• jointly develop the research domain’s organizational structure and diverse offers of activities;
• support and inspire domain chairs and domain members in creating new and strengthening existing networks and communities;

• completed a PhD in Psychology, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Medical Sciences, Neurosciences or related research field;
• written and oral fluency in Dutch and English is crucial;
• expertise in quantitative research, including advanced statistics (e.g., in SPSS, Mplus, R);
• experience with collecting and using large (cohort) datasets;
• team work skills: building a team/community, keep it going, involve and retain partners, taking and sharing responsibility, good sense of group dynamics;
• project development skills: being pro-active, creative, playful, flexible, and curious;
• organizational skills (e.g., coordination of the domain, organizing meetings).

• experience with creating/organizing a community;
• experience with interdisciplinary research projects;
• experience with youth research (age 10-24);
• experience with qualitative research methods;

• A position (0.8 FTE) beginning November 1, 2022 until June 30, 2026. Approximately half of the time is reserved for research and approximately half of the time is reserved for community development and organization of the domain. 
• This is a job in which high-quality academic research and societal impact created by research go hand-in-hand.
• A gross monthly salary, ranging between €3,413 and €3,703 (based on a full-time basis, scale 10 according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) plus a yearly 8% holiday allowance in May, and an 8.3 % end-of-year allowance in December.
• Networking and support for personal development and career planning.
• A wide range of secondary employment conditions, such as excellent technical infrastructure, savings schemes, excellent sports facilities, and parental and maternity leave. More information: terms of employment.
• The conditions of employment correspond with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (cao NU).
• Membership in a vibrant research and educational community.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

Utrecht, one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, with a charming old centre and an internationally oriented culture The city with a population of nearly 360,000 is strongly influenced by its century-old university  and forms a hub in the middle of the country. Its ancient city centre and its modern central station can easily be reached from the Utrecht Science Park by public transport or by a 15 minute bicycle ride. Utrecht boasts beautiful canals with extraordinary wharf cellars housing cafés and terraces by the water, as well as a broad variety of shops and boutiques.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences is one of the leading faculties in Europe providing research and academic teaching in cultural anthr opology, educational sciences, interdisciplinary social science, pedagogical sciences, psychology, and sociology. More than 5,600 students are enrolled in a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programmes. The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has some 850 faculty and staff members, all providing their individual contribution to the training and education of young talent and to the research into and finding solutions for scientific and societal issues.