Meet our new PI: Catrin Finkenauer

Prof. Catrin Finkenauer will take over the role of CID PI in work package 1 from Prof. Wilma Vollebergh (who recently retired). Catrin is a professor in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Youth Studies at Utrecht University, as well as Programme Director for Dynamics of Youth, one of Utrecht University’s four strategic themes.

Catrin Finkenauer

Combining social, clinical, experimental, biological, and developmental research, Prof. Finkenauer’s work centers on the costs and benefits of relationships for young people’s health and wellbeing. Her research focuses on interpersonal dynamics and examines how relationship partners influence each other. She is interested in all sorts of relationships: Parent-child relationships, intimate relationships, and friendships.

Connection to CID

As Programme Director for Dynamics of Youth Prof. Finkenauer is well aware of the child development research performed in Utrecht, including Utrecht based CID cohorts YOUth and RADAR. She is also a familiar face for NTR researchers as her previous position was as Professor of Interpersonal Relationships, Biological Psychology, VU University. One of the focus areas in Prof. Finkenauer research is self-control, closely related to one of CID’s key measures: behavioural control. In fact, she was quoted in a previous (Dutch) interview ‘To maintain a healthy relationship, you need self-control.’