Geertjan Overbeek
University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Youth Prevention in a Changing Society
In large parts of the world, prevention is considered a necessary component of a successful youth care practice. Time and again, pundits have pushed for prevention, the earlier the better. But an inconvenient truth is that together with the rise of prevention over the past decades, the prevalence of several mental health problems and stress in youths has also increased. In order to explain this paradox—and to resolve it—we need to critically reflect on different interpretations of mental health trends in youths and on how prevention is being operationalized. In this keynote, I critically reflect on the often-held perspective that youth mental health is deteriorating, and put forward a contrasting notion; that as a society we’ve developed a more encompassing view of what constitutes psychopathology, clinical-level mental health problems, and severe stress. In line with this ‘darker view’ of youth mental health, youth prevention in our changing society has developed into a screen-and-resolve kind of ‘troubleshooting’ approach, rather than as an approach that supports the development of good health, competence, and resilience.
Bio:
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.