Bullying is a common phenomenon that exacts a staggering cost in human suffering. Anti-bullying interventions can be effective, as shown by KiVa findings from randomized-controlled trials in Finland and the Netherlands. The percentage of Dutch children who said they were being bullied dropped by 53% in KiVa schools versus 35% in control schools. Unfortunately, 13.5% of the children (about 3 per classroom) at KiVa schools were still bullied (monthly or more)? which emphasizes that additional interventions should be developed. As an expert in bullying and victimization, I am highly motivated to take a new step and tackle a difficult problem: developing strategies for bullying cases that have so far been resistant to interventions. To achieve this, I will use a combined theoretical and empirical approach to investigate why bullying persists in some school classes, and design and test novel interventions based on the concept that bullying may be reduced if: (1) goal-related and social network processes are better understood and utilized for interventions; (2) bullies can be taught to adopt prosocial strategies to achieve non-aggressive status goals; (3) schools are helped with the peer support intervention for victims; (4) teachers are given the skills and means to become more capable in taking an active stance against bullying. I will develop, implement, and evaluate these tailored interventions using my existing network of KiVa schools as a living laboratory. I expect that this will deliver new insights into the group processes of bullying and create the possibility to minimize bullying. The project will contribute to the emerging literature of school-based social network interventions, and will convert scientific knowledge into practice and vice versa. Through providing an understanding of the mechanisms of intervention success, the project will make a unique contribution to the design of the next generation of anti-bullying programs.

Youths’ involvement in organized crime is worrisome, as it not only disrupts a healthy development, but also aggravates youths’ criminal behavior, and makes it harder to return to living a crime-free life. Social ties play an import role in the way youths get and stay involved in organized crime, that is why interventions are needed that target the youth, but also the youth’s social environment. We examine hotspots and mechanisms underlying organized crime involvement and use the knowledge gained to improve and implement intervention strategies. This way, the proposed project directly contributes to effectively decreasing youths’ involvement in organized crime.

Youths’ involvement in organized crime is worrisome, as it not only disrupts a healthy development, but also aggravates youths’ criminal behavior, and makes it harder to return to living a crime-free life. Social ties play an import role in the way youths get and stay involved in organized crime, that is why interventions are needed that target the youth, but also the youth’s social environment. We examine hotspots and mechanisms underlying organized crime involvement and use the knowledge gained to improve and implement intervention strategies. This way, the proposed project directly contributes to effectively decreasing youths’ involvement in organized crime.

The purpose of the proposed research is (1) to investigate the co-evolution of the kinship network and the well-being of its members after parental divorce and (2) to identify detrimental and beneficial conditions affecting family members? well-being. Loyalty conflicts among affective ties, substitution mechanisms among support ties, and the multiplexity and multifunctionality of the kinship network will be studied with regard to social and physical well-being. Contextual moderations of this will be investigated for divorced and non-divorced families. Longitudinal sociometric data of complete kinship networks will be collected and analysed with recently developed methods.

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