dr. R (Robin) Achterhof

Biography

My work is driven by one question: how can we strengthen the everyday social connections that underlie youth mental health? As an assistant professor in the Youth & Family team at Erasmus University Rotterdam, I study the rhythms of young people’s daily lives — not in the lab, but as they unfold in real time. To do so, I mostly use experience sampling methodology (ESM) to map how social interactions, emotions and well-being co-evolve from moment to moment. I also connect and support ESM researchers as the academic lead of the Rotterdam ESM Group.

Across my research, I focus on themes such as

• day-to-day social behavior,
• youth mental health,
• parenting and family dynamics,
• social determinants of health, and
• the role of social connection in development and well-being.

Current research projects I contribute to include:

• IC-You: improving communication between young people and trusted adults;
• Perfect Parents: examining societal pressure and parental burnout in contemporary parenting;
• EMPaTHY: studying how empathy can be fostered between adolescents with complex problems and professionals in residential care.
• SCARCITY (w/ KU Leuven): understanding the (day-to-day) links between financial scarcity and mental health;

In my teaching within the Pedagogical Sciences bachelor and master, I encourage students to critically examine how social connection shapes youth development, and I supervise theses that in some way relate to youth mental health. My interdisciplinary background in pedagogical sciences, developmental psychology and psychiatry allows me to bridge fundamental research with real-world questions about how young people grow, connect and thrive.