This research evaluates the Youth Act. It will provide an overview of how the transition takes place, whether the transformation process develops in the right direction and whether the legal safeguards are functioning properly.

On young Muslims seeking to understand their place and make their way in a transformed world.

How can we broaden youth participation in STEM Learning

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.

In this study the central question to be answered is whether children are able to participate in decisions and at which moments these decisions are taken in the youth care trajectory.

Policy studies and interventions in the field of Youth

An interdisciplinary collection of the best international scholarship on Muslim youth.

Policy studies and interventions in the field of Youth

Together with Knud Andresen, Bart van der Steen recently published a volume titled A European Youth Revolt. European Perspectives on Youth Protest and Social Movements in the 1980s.

Roughly arrested and subjected to extreme isolation. Using his experience, expert Jason Bhugwandass spoke to 50 young people who have spent time on Zikos wards (‘very intense, short-term observation and stabilisation wards’). He concluded that they’re ‘mostly locked up’ and leave ‘even more traumatised’…

From basic science to real-world interventions

In recent years, and especially since the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, a growing body of research, media reporting, and scholarly literature has focused on the role of ‘Arab youth’ as the drivers of social and political movements across the Middle East and North Africa.

Practice and science show that secure residential youth care in the Netherlands should no longer be used as a catch-all solution. This is the conclusion of several professionals including Professor of Child Law Mariëlle Bruning in Dutch newspaper NRC.

Our mission is to recognise and treat stress and anxiety in children as early as possible, by connecting scientific research, clinical practice and education.

The Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies research group conducts innovative high-quality research aiming to gain knowledge about deviant developmental trajectories of vulnerable children, adolescents, and families, about how to prevent problematic development and how to intervene when necessary.

Biological and behavioural measurements of parent-child interactions.

The program group Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies of the Institute of Education and Child Studies deals with the developmental processes of vulnerable children, young people and families.

Welcome to the Social Anxiety and Specific Phobia (SASP) Research Group!

The program group Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies is located in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University near Central Station.

Within the bachelor's program of Education and Child Studies, we include the minor Kindermishandeling en Verwaarlozing: een levensloopperspectief and several other courses.

Can positive peer feedback break the cycle of negative self-relevant cognitive processes and reduce self-reported anxiety in early adolescents?

Policy plans state that children should be placed in secure youth care less often and for shorter periods. But this is problematic in practice.

Which educational and child welfare interventions offer optimal opportunities for positive development to children with severe behavioral and emotional disorders.

Social anxiety disorder is one of the most common disorders in children and young people. Social anxiety is characterized by excessive fear and avoidance of social situations. The primary fear in children with social anxiety is that they will be negatively judged by others. To date, the most frequently…

Does the public speaking anxiety that many youngsters experience originates from specific characteristics in their earlier development?

What are the developmental pathways to social anxiety (disorder), the causal processes and maintaining factors? How do these factors interact in the development of social anxiety disorder? How can this knowledge be used to design and implement effective preventive intervention programs for youth?

The waiting lists in youth care are alarmingly long. This has been confirmed again by a study carried out by a Dutch foundation The Forgotten Child.

How can mentors and social workers foster the vocational identity of at-risk youth and improve their prospects?

This project looks at the ways in which youth in southern Nigeria navigate their lives in a context of experiencing long-term socioeconomic uncertainty and political insecurity (duress).

On 1 January 2021, a major youth care centre in the Dutch province Zeeland will close its doors. It is responsible for implementing child protection measures. As a result, it is likely that the care for around 1100 children will come under threat. Vulnerable children will face changes to the authorities…

Social and Behavioural Sciences, Psychology

The Cinematic Santri explores the rise and course over the last ten years of cinematic practices among a younger generation of NU associates (Nahdlatul Ulama), the largest traditionalist Muslim group in Indonesia and elsewhere.

Do general practitioners recognize children with or at risk of problematic anxiety and is there a pattern that might help differentiate those with and without anxiety disorders in general practice?

The Department of Child Law is a knowledge centre dedicated to academic research and education for both students and professionals in the field of child law and children's rights.

How does economic downturn affect pre-existing democratic values and intergroup attitudes? Does economic downturn lead people to lose support for democracy and does it raise perceptions of intergroup threat? Is the potential effect of economic downturn on these political attitudes conditional upon earlier…

Ten underage boys are due to appear before a juvenile court. They are accused of luring and attacking nine men whom they believed were paedophiles. Last October, one attack cost a 73-year-old former teacher from Arnhem his life.

Does “putting yourself in the migrant’s shoes” elicit more positive attitudes toward migration? Can perspective-taking – the active consideration of others’ mental states and subjective experiences – help undermine negative stereotypes and prejudice against migrants? We explore these questions in Ecuador,…

How many children are waiting for help from youth services in the Netherlands at any given time? And exactly how long do they have to wait?

Hart Publishing in Oxford has published the first book in a series entitled ‘Restatement of Labour Law in Europe’. This particular book deals with the question of which employees are protected by labour law (‘The concept of employee’).

How do old and new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) relate to new social and political movements in Central Africa? What does this tell us about Africa and the Information Age?

The civil lawsuit against the Congregation of 'Onze Lieve Vrouw van Liefde van de Goede Herder' starts this week. A total of 19 women, aged from 62 to 91, together with the women’s rights foundation Clara Wichmann wants recognition through the courts that there was a situation of forced labour at youth…

This book presents concrete solutions for managing the legal risks distorting the development of various areas of EU law. It pursues an innovative and effective approach to identify legal risks, their causes at the EU level and their impacts on the functioning of the Union and its Member States. It…

The institute that focuses on Public Law is as broad as the field itself. The Institute of Public Law has six departments, each with its own research agenda.

In the summer of 2021, Lucy Opoka was awarded one of the coveted Meijers PhD positions. In October, she arrived back in Leiden, where she obtained her LLM degree Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights in 2019. Professor Liefaard interviewed Lucy upon arrival.

The Dutch cabinet will allocate a total of 40 million euros extra for institutions providing youth protection and youth rehabilitation over the next four years. Local councils must make the same amount available. Will that be enough to solve the problems?

Published by Brill Nijhoff and written by leading experts including national judges, academics and practitioners East African Community Law is the first comparative as well as open access textbook on EAC law. The book provides a key resource for the research, teaching, and practice of EAC law. It also…