Geertjan graduated in Developmental Psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. During his PhD, he studied how parent-child interactions early in life predicted ‘social health’ in adolescence—examining whether based on their early experience with caregivers adolescents were able to develop satisfying relationships with peers and romantic partners. His interest in child and adolescent social development never left him since.
From 2003 onward, he has worked tirelessly to examine how and under which circumstances, one’s early upbringing—by parents and peers—is linked to developmental outcomes.
In 2013, Geertjan moved to the University of Amsterdam as full professor, founding a new research lab to focus on youth prevention and developing a new master’s program on preventive youth care. The mission of the Youth Prevention Lab is to increase our knowledge about how we can stimulate the development of health, resilience and satisfying social relationships in children and adolescents worldwide.
Apart from being a passionate researcher, Geertjan loves teaching and tutoring and feels strongly committed to inspiring next-generation scientists and practitioners. Also, he is strongly committed to increasing the valorization of our developmental science for, and in, practice.