As assistant professor, I am affiliated with the Radboud University, Behavioural Science Institute and the Radboudumc, Donders Institute. In my research, I aim to unravel how the early environment impacts child development and health. I am primarily interested in maternal stress during the pre-conception, prenatal, and postnatal period, including its predictors, underlying mechanisms, treatment possibilities, and possible effects on child development.
Together with Carolina de Weerth, I am currently involved in the studies that are running in the Developmental Psychobiology Lab (e.g. BIBO, BINGO, SMILEY, and (co-) supervising studies that are running in the Radboudumc (e.g. SPECHT, SPECHT2). Also, I am working on projects investigating maternal experiences during the work resumption period after pregnancy leave, including the potential impact on negative work resumption experiences on maternal care and infant development (e.g. 3B, REWIND).
As from January 2023, I'm only working one day a week as a researcher. The rest of my time I spend at Pro Parents.
Missler, M., van Straten, A., Denissen, J., Donker, T., & Beijers, R. (2020). Effectiveness of a psycho-educational intervention for expecting parents to prevent postpartum parenting stress, depression and anxiety: a randomized controlled trial. Pregnancy and Childbirth.
Beijers, R., Hartman, S., Shalev, I., Hastings, W., Mattern, B., de Weerth, C. & Belsky, J. (2020). Testing three hypotheses about effects of sensitive-insensitive parenting on telomeres. Developmental Psychology.
Beijers, R., Dahn, D., Shalev, I., Belsky, J., & de Weerth, C. (2020). Biological embedding of maternal postpartum depressive symptoms: The potential role of diurnal cortisol and telomere length. Biological Psychology.