Postdoc ‘Psychosocial and contextual determinants of public adherence to COVID-19 prevention...

As a postdoc you will research psychosocial and contextual determinants of public adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures. We offer an exciting opportunity to work in a collaborative, social and dedicated team and a unique national behavioural science consortium. We will guide you in your research tasks, which will help you develop your academic career. Will you join us?

This position is part of a behavioural science consortium, initiated by the Corona Behavioural Unit of the RIVM (the national public health institute), the Radboud University Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University and the University of Twente. The aim is to draw the key scientific lessons from the behavioural science data collected during the pandemic.

To slow the spread of the corona virus, unprecedented behavioural measures have been implemented by National Governments, from social distancing and working from home, to lock-downs. Adherence to these prevention measures is key to the effectiveness of the pandemic response. The Corona Behavioural Unit has led a dynamic cohort study with over 200.000 participants and (at present) 19 waves of data, assessing social activities, mobility, adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures, and psychosocial determinants such as risk perceptions, self-efficacy, response efficacy, social norms, and behavioural cues and triggers. It has also collected a large amount of qualitative data from interviews and focus groups. Combining these data with data from other sources, such as infection and hospitalisation numbers, the coding of press conferences, international literature, and an expert consensus meeting, the objective of this project is identify key psychosocial and contextual factors that affect public adherence to those measures. This knowledge should contribute to improving the evidence-base and theories for public infection prevention and detection behaviours during pandemics.

We offer an exciting opportunity to work in a collaborative, social and dedicated team and a unique national behavioural science consortium. You will be embedded in a group of five post-doctoral researchers, working at the various universities; and researchers from the Corona Behavioural Unit. You will be working mainly on longitudinal data analysis (quantitative and qualitative), and will receive training on topics such as missing data analysis and making research results useful for policy makers and communication professionals.

The research will be conducted under direct supervision of Marijn de Bruin, who is professor at the Radboudumc and chief scientist of the Corona Behavioural Unit. The post-docs will collaborate closely with researchers from the Corona Behavioural Unit at the RIVM and with different professors from the scientific advisory board of the Corona Behavioural Unit.