In a recent study, Dr. Moji Aghajani and colleagues show that adolescents with a severe form of Conduct Disorder (CD) -with limited prosocial emotions- require an unusually large amount of brain capacity to read emotional faces. These effects were found in comparison to CD youth without limited prosocial…

Interested in how you can transfer your knowledge from yourself or from a knowledge institute into society at large? Several experts in the fields of grant development, Intellectual property rights and knowledge brokering take you through the various processes within four weeks time in this online c…

The African Studies Centre Leiden’s Research Programme for 2025-2029 is called ‘African Trajectories: Past Dependencies and New Directions’. Building on its former programme, it extends the recognition of Africa’s pivotal role in world affairs. The continent’s global significance has become increasingly…

Find out more about the career opportunities after finishing the programme International Children's Rights. The programme prepares you for a successful career..

What role do parent-child interactions play in the development, maintenance and treatment of depression in young people?

Anne-Laura van Harmelen, professor Brain, Safety and Resilience will give her inaugural lecture ‘Resilience does not exist’ (in Dutch) on Monday 27 June. In her inaugural lecture she will discuss resilience after childhood adversity.

Homicide followed by the suicide of the perpetrator often leads to shock and incomprehension. It has been suggested that media reporting on such cases could lead to an imitation effect.

What is the optimal way to utilise intermediate assessment in improving study behaviour and study success?

The major aim of the master specialisation Child and Adolescent Psychology is that students develop skills to empower young people and their families and teachers to overcome psychological problems that can occur among children and adolescents. Students will be expert in both the normal development…

Find out more about the programme International Children's Rights. We teach you to respond to (inter)national legal developments in relation to children.

Jeugdhulpinstanties zijn ernstig tekort geschoten bij hulp aan het mishandeld pleegmeisje uit Vlaardingen, blijkt uit nieuw onderzoeksrapport. Hoogleraar jeugdrecht Mariëlle Bruning schoof aan bij Nieuwsuur: ‘Het gaat om extreem menselijk falen.’

In verwachting zijn van een kindje en weer terugkeren naar het werk, roept vaak vragen op bij zowel medewerkers als leidinggevende. Daarom hebben we een aantal gidsen gemaakt vol informatie over:

Leiden's city centre, bathed in autumn sunshine and teeming with visitors. On 14 October, several thousands of students and their parents came to visit the University's Open Day. We spoke to a number of students at the information fair in the Pieterskerk; each of them had their own questions, doubts…

From 9 until 20 October 2017 Stephanie Rap has visited the Renmin University of China Law School in Beijing to teach a course titled Juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice: interdisciplinary perspectives. She was warmly welcomed by the vice-dean Prof. Yanan Shi and Ms. Lei Chen, head of the law school’s…

How does having limited access to the social world affect Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) children’s emotional development? And in turn, how do impairments in emotional functioning affect social development and the development of psychopathology?

Foster children’s behaviour is more problematic than that of their peers in ‘normal’ family situations. However, it is difficult to determine the exact cause of behavioural problems. Anouk Goemans, a researcher in clinical child and adolescent studies, calls for more screening and monitoring. PhD defence…

The development of children and their personal academic growth as well as national academic growth programs are interesting topics in Dutch media. Recently media has covered how well equipped teenagers are to plan their homework activities and of course the PISA and TIMSS results that were revealed…

Are you interested in creating a fabulous science pitch? Neurospyschologist Liza Cornet - winner of the National Famelab Science Pitching Competition 2020 shares 3 tips based on personal experience that can help you design your pitch.

On 6 March 2018, the Dutch Minister for Legal Protection, Mr. Dekker, responded to the Ph.D. dissertation ‘Voorlopige hechtenis in het Nederlandse jeugdstrafrecht’ (‘Pre-trial detention in the Dutch juvenile justice system’) in a Letter to Parliament.

From research on the first human ancestors to leave Africa to mathematical models in random disturbances. For Leiden researchers have been awarded a prestigious Vici grant by the Dutch Research Council.

Last Thursday, June 8th, Ton Liefaard (UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights and Program Director of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights, LL.M. program) and Daniella Zlotnik (researcher and lecturer at the child law department) visited the Committee on Bioethics at the…

From anxiety disorders to an extremely unhealthy lifestyle. In the Leiden University Treatment and Expertise Centre (LUBEC) children and adults receive treatment that is in line with the newest scientific insights. The centre is also a training and research institution, so students and researchers are…

Leiden University will appoint Dr Anne-Laura van Harmelen as Professor of Brain, Security and Resilience at the Institute of Education and Child Studies with effect from 1 September 2020. She will focus on the brain in relation to the development of transgressive behaviour and its prevention and tre…

For a month long, the Senate Chamber of Leiden University was reserved for portraits of women. The work of art showing a hundred unique portraits of female professors has now been put into storage, but the board of the University is taking measures to promote the image of women in science.

There are effective treatments for people with autism, says Wouter Staal, professor of Autism Spectrum Disorders, in his inaugural lecture on 4 May. However, it is not yet clear which treatment is most effective for which individual.

What is the relation between brain development and social and cognitive development across childhood, adolescence and adulthood?

How does task context affect children’s word productions?

The research project addresses the question how complaints in the voluntary youth care system are dealt with on the municipal level and what role (municipal) Children’s Ombudspersons play in this context, through qualitative research methods.

The ‘Leer te Durven!’ program (Learn to Dare) is a preventive training program for children with mild anxiety symptoms (Simon & Bögels, 2014). The program has been developed for children between the ages of 8 and 12 who feel or behave anxiously, avoid situations, are afraid of doing things wrong, appear…

Development and validation of instruments that can measure different aspects of emotional competence in children with normal and atypical development, and in different cultures

Textbooks in the Netherlands contain significantly fewer female than male characters and relatively few characters from a non-Western background. They also contain implicit stereotyping. This is what Judi Mesman, Professor of the Interdisciplinary Study of Societal Challenges at Leiden University, has…

Older children more frequently link Black Pete with a black person. Both younger and older children think positively about him. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Judi Mesman, Professor of Diversity in Parenting and Development.

The team from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia) came out on top at the international online Moot Court organised by Leiden University and law firm Baker McKenzie.

The master’s specialisation Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences and Business Studies at Leiden University combines fundamental and applied research with different aspects of business studies.

PhD candidate at the Parenting, Child Care and Development programme group Wei Li examined longitudinally the role of parents in self-regulation of young children in the Netherlands and China during their first two years of life. Li also specifically focused on the role of grandparents in China. This…

Do you want to apply for this master’s programme at Leiden University? Find out how to apply for your programme by following the step-by step guide in the application and admission section.

On the 23rd of March, Alessandro del Tomba successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Alessandro on this achievement!

In this work, we investigate the minute circular dichroism effects of single nanoparticles.To this aim, we apply photothermal imaging with a polarization-modulated heating beam.

The Leiden HANDS!Lab for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies hosts research activities in the area of sign language linguistics and Deaf studies, with a focus on Africa. In addition to various research projects, we have our Deaf studies lecture Series in International Sign and offer various regular and…

Behind the scenes, many different people are involved in the projects within the Brave Little Ones research group. See below for an overview of the research team.