Jacobien Niebuur

Jacobien Niebuur is a PhD student within unit Health Behavior Epidemiology and the Healthy Ageing, Population and Society (HAPS) program. This research program is a collaboration between the departments of Epidemiology, Sociology and Demography (University of Groningen) and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). HAPS focuses on the social context of health and well-being over the life course. Jacobien obtained her Masters’degree in Economics at the University of Groningen in June 2014 and in April 2015, she started as a PhD student at the department of Epidemiology.

Jacobien works on the research project ‘Actief Oud is Goud’ , under supervision of Dr. Nynke Smidt, Prof. dr. Nardi Steverink and Prof. dr. Aart Liefbroer. Within this research project, we study participation in voluntary work. Mainly, we are interested in finding the determinants and underlying motivation of participation in (formal) volunteering as well as in the health and well-being outcomes of participation in voluntary work. This topic is relevant because remaining active in the society, also after retirement, has important individual as well as collective benefits. People who remain active within the society are more likely to attain a high age with relatively little health problems. Moreover, stimulating participation also among the older generations is important with respect to keeping the society sustainable, especially in the light of the ageing population.