Two PhD positions on identity and autonomy in adolescence (0.8 - 1.0 FTE)

The Department of Education and Pedagogical Science, division Youth and Family, has two vacancies for PhD students on the project Development of Adolescent Identity and Autonomy during Transitional Periods: Putting the Individual Back into Development (INTRANSTION). The INTRANSITION project has been funded by an ERC Consolidator grant. You will be part of a larger project team, containing the principle investigator, three PhD candidates, two postdocs and a number of student assistants. 

Adolescents need to develop their identity and autonomy whilst also remaining highly connected to parents and friends. Identity develops through interactions with parents and friends and is important for adolescents' relational functioning and societal participation. This project examines how identity and autonomy are formed in daily interactions with parents and friends,  during transitions from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to emerging adulthood. The INTRANSITION project aims to examine how development of identity and autonomy affect each other during adolescence. The project will examine intra-individual (or within-person, as opposed to inter-individual or between-person) processes of change in identity and autonomy. Three cohorts of adolescents will be followed for two years during important transitional periods: one cohort that transitions from elementary to secondary education and two cohorts that transition from secondary to tertiary education (in different school levels). Data will be collected on moment-to-moment behaviour during interactions with parents and friends, relational experiences across hours and days, and long-term development. One PhD candidate will focus on the transition from elementary to secondary education and the second PhD candidate will focus on the transition from secondary to tertiary education.

The candidate will contribute to the collection of data. In addition, the candidate is expected to disseminate the knowledge gained from the project through publishing five research articles in international research journals, the dissertation and presenting results at international and national conferences.

The candidate will be a part of the local PhD Programme of the Utrecht Centre for Child and Adolescent Studies (UC-CAS) within the Utrecht Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (UGSSBS). The candidate will also be expected to follow advanced graduate courses as deemed necessary including advanced statistics and methodology courses offered by UU-CAS training and education programme. The candidate will also be expected to spend 10% of his/her time providing teaching assistance at undergraduate level.