René Veenstra appointed professor of Sociology

As of May 1, 2013, prof. dr. René Veenstra has been appointed professor of Sociology for the Chair of Social Development, at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen.

These past two years René Veenstra was Adjunct Professor. Veenstra is a member of the research school ICS. His research concentrates on the development of prosocial and antisocial behavior, friendship relationships, networks of children and adolescents, and bullying. Especially his research on the effectiveness of the Finnish anti-bullying program KiVa attracts a lot of public attention.

In 2010 Veenstra's research group received a grant from EUR 1 million from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, to test the Finnish anti-bullying program on hundred Dutch schools. KiVa focusses not only on the bully or the victim, but on the group as a whole, all pupils in the classroom.

René Veenstra (1969) studied Educational Science and Pedagogy in Groningen. He had his defense in 1999 at the ICS. His dissertation was about achievement and progress of pupils in secondary education. He also works, first as postdoc and now as a member of the management team, in the longitudinal research project TRAILS; this project follows youngsters between the ages of 11 en 25.

In 2005 René Veenstra was appointed as Assistant Professor and in 2008 as Associate Professor. In the period 2007-2011 Veenstra was visiting professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Turku, Finland. He is editor of the Journal Research on Adolescence.

On October 15, 2013, he will deliver his inaugural speech, about the role of 'the group' in the behavior of young people.