he Department of Child Development and Education, one of the departments in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG), is looking for a PhD candidate for the VICI-funded project, entitled ‘When mummy and daddy get under your skin. A new look at how parenting affects children’s stress reactivity and disruptive behaviour’. The project will be supervised by prof. Geertjan Overbeek and dr  Patty Leijten.

Child maltreatment is a widespread, global phenomenon that affects the lives of millions of children all over the world. In children who experience chronic maltreatment or highly dysfunctional caregiving, stress reactivity is significantly upregulated, towards hyperarousal, vigilance and alertness. The stressful parenting environment may be related to epigenetic signatures in children. Specifically, dysfunctional parenting predicts methylation (gene silencing) in a glucocorticoid gene pathway responsible for heightened stress reactivity and disruptive behavior in children. How can we undo this process? 

This project focuses on the hypothesis that by improving parenting with known-effective parenting interventions, previously methylated gene pathways that are responsible for impaired stress reactivity can become demethylated―leading to improved stress reactivity that prevents or diminishes children’s disruptive behavior. This hypothesis will be examined in an experimental research paradigm (i.e., a randomized controlled trial) among at-risk children and their families in the Amsterdam SARPHATI cohort. One of the main aims within this vici subproject is to examine the effectiveness of a stepped care intervention approach, for children and families who have previously received interventions but who may be in need of further support and/or intervention. The project is unique in that it pairs (epi)genetic and physiological data with observational and questionnaire data on parent-child interactions in a randomized controlled trial of a known-effective parenting intervention.

Tasks:

• Participation in the PhD-program of the Graduate School of Child Development and Education and RPA YIELD;
• independently carrying out research, writing scientific articles, and completing a PhD dissertation within four or five years;
• active participation in the program group of Preventive Youth Care, and the Research Institute of Child Development and Education;
• participating in conferences, workshops, seminars, and other scholarly activities.

You have:

• graduated with excellent results on a research-based Research Master or Master thesis in (Ortho)Pedagogics, (Developmental) Psychology, or a closely related discipline;
• interest in child development, and how we can use knowledge from psychology and pedagogics to help children flourish;
• experience in carrying out quantitative research and analyses;
• excellent communication and academic writing skills (Dutch and English);
• excellent organization and project coordination skills;
• experience in working with parents and children;
• knowledge of/interest in parent-child interactions, stress reactivity, and (epi)gene-environment interplay in childhood
• knowledge of/interest in family interventions and preventive youth care.

The position concerns a temporary appointment of 38 hours per week for a maximum term of 48 months. The initial appointment is for one year. Following a positive assessment and barring altered circumstances, this term will be extended by a maximum of 36 months, which should result in the conferral of a doctorate. We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events. You will also be tasked with teaching Bachelor's students.

Your salary will be € 2,325.00 gross per month in the first year and will increase to € 2,972.00 in the final year, based on full-time employment and in keeping with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities. We additionally offer an extensive package of secondary benefits, including 8% holiday allowance and a year-end bonus of 8,3%.

What else can we offer you?

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organisation. The social and behavioural sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.

To work at the University of Amsterdam is to work in a discerning, independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Department of Child Development and Education

The Staff of the Department participates in the College of Child Development and Education (bachelor’s programmes), the Graduate School of Child Development and Education (master’s programmes and graduate programme) and in the Research Institute of Child Development and Education. At this institute, fundamental research is conducted in the field of child development and education and in Research Priority Area Yield.

https://www.uva.nl/en/faculty/faculty-of-social-and-behavioural-sciences/disciplines/child-development-and-education/child-development-and-education.html