WP1 Socio-Economic Status (SES) & Education 

Not all adolescents grow up with the same opportunities. Differences in family income, parental education, and the support available at home, within peer groups, and in the wider community shape how young people form social expectations and set long-term goals.

Work Package 1 investigates how differences in young people’s social and societal environments influence their social and academic development and how these factors interact with their neurobiological development.

Self-Regulation

Specifically, this project examines how such opportunities and challenges interact with adolescents’ developing capacity for self-regulation, including goal setting and the ability to delay short-term rewards in favour of longer-term outcomes. We study self-regulation both behaviourally and through brain imaging, which allows us to examine how neural development contributes to differences in social and academic development.

Longitudinal Study Design

To understand these processes over time, we follow two large groups of adolescents in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In total, 800 young people aged 10 to 20 will be studied across three waves of data collection over a 10-year period.

Timeline and Expected Outcomes

The first wave will be completed in early 2026. In the coming years, the research team will prepare the next waves and begin publishing the first results, offering new insights into how early opportunities shape social and educational pathways and how inequalities can be reduced.

WP1:

Amsterdam Cohort:

• Lydia Krabbendam
• Barbara Braams
• Nienke van Atteveldt
• Hilde Huizenga
• Thijs Bol
• Mariët van Buuren
• Van Vu
• Tieme Janssen
• Brenda Jansen
• Ilya Veer
• Eddy Brummelman
• Maartje Overhaus
• Tatvan Todor
• Jule Schretzmeir
• Myrthe Vel Tromp
• Nathalie Aerts
• Zwanet Young

Rotterdam Cohort:

• Eveline Crone
• Nienke van Atteveldt
• Jeroen van der Waal
• Anna van Duijvenvoorde
• Ingmar Franken
• Loes Keijsers
• Suzanne van de Groep
• Anita Harrewijn
• Yara Toenders
• Lysanne te Brinke
• Kayla Green
• Miriam Hollarek
• Lotte van Rijn
• Lonneke Elzinga
• Ethell Dubois
• Coen Koevoet
• Yvette Grootjans