Postdoctoral Researcher on identity and autonomy in adolescence (0.8 FTE)

The Department of Education and Pedagogical Science, Division Youth and Family, has a vacancy for a Postdoctoral Researcher 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. You will potentially be involved in the supervision of the PhD students.

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. The postdoc will specifically focus on the role of person-environment interactions in intra-individual development of identity and autonomy.