Anja Huizink
Professor
Department of Psychology - Clinical PsychologyAbout Anja Huizink
Since February 2026, Anja is the holder of Queen Silvia’s Professorship in Global Child and Adolescent Health, with a focus on mental health. In this role she will carry out research as well as build and lead an interdisciplinary research institute. The institute brings together the Faculties of Social Science and Education, Sahlgrenska Academy and the School of Business, Economics and Law of the University of Gothenburg. Anja is also Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Department of Clinical, Neuro-, and Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Background
Anja was trained as a psychologist (majors in physiological psychology and neuropsychology) at VU and received her PhD in child psychiatry from the Medical Faculty of University Utrecht in 2000, with a dissertation entitled “Prenatal stress and its effects on infant development”. After completing a postdoctoral position in disaster research at the VU medical center, she extended her research line as Assistant Professor (2003) and Associate Professor (2007) at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, also focusing on other prenatal exposures during pregnancy (e.g., maternal substance use). In addition, she studied biopsychological risk factors (in particular stress) for adolescent substance use and behavioral addiction in several epidemiological cohorts. In 2009, she was appointed Professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen, to an affiliated chair entitled “Biological-psychological influence on Addiction in Youth.” She was appointed Full Professor at VU in 2012.
Current work
Anja’s main research aim is to promote and maintain mental health of children and adolescents, with a particular focus on stress and other biopsychological mechanisms underlying a variety of ill mental health outcomes. More specifically, her two main research lines are (1) perinatal maternal influence on offspring (e.g., stress, pregnancy-related anxiety, substance use), and (2) psychobiological influences (e.g., stress) on adolescent mental health and substance use, including internet addiction. Since 2011, she has expanded her work to include intervention research, both in the perinatal and adolescent period, in different countries, including the Global South. She currently supervises ten PhD students, four of whom are based in Kenya.
Anja uses innovative methods and technologies in her research, such as ecological momentary assessments (EMA) and heart rate variability biofeedback (HRV-BF) to estimate stressful experiences in adolescents’ everyday life and to develop interventions aimed at regulating the stress system. She also uses e-health applications as intervention tools to promote better health. Anja believes the input of external stakeholders on study ideas is crucial for their societal impact and relevance, and studies are therefore often co-created with for example adolescents or pregnant women.
Two exemplary research projects Anja currently leads are listed below:
1. Lifestyle and mindfulness intervention for pregnant women: a project that will start in 2026, in collaboration with researchers from the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, conducting an RCT in two countries to test for the effectiveness of this intervention in reducing distress and preventing perinatal mental health problems among pregnant women. Anja supervises the PhD student in Sweden.
2. Bootstrap: a Horizon Europe funded consortium project to identify problematic usage of the internet (PUI) and intervene in time in 12-to 16-year-olds across 9 different European countries. Anja supervises a Dutch PhD student and is the recruitment center lead in the Netherlands. Click here for the website of the consortium.
Selected publications
Huizink, A.C., de Rooij, S.R. (2018). Prenatal Stress and Models Explaining Risk for Psychopathology Revisited: Generic Vulnerability and Divergent Pathways. Development and Psychopathology, 30 (3), 1041-1062. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0954579418000354
Fineberg, N. A., Brandtner, A., Löchner, N., Kannen, C., Smith, M., Foster, S., ... & Brand, M. (2025). Research protocol for BootStRaP assessment phase: A nine-nation study on boosting societal adaptation and mental health in a rapidly digitalising, post-pandemic Europe. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 152653. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2025.152653
Chongwo E. J., Huizink A. C., Chelangat D., Njoroge E., Aoko B., Kaniala M., ... & Abubakar A. (2025). Food insecurity is associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms among caregivers of young children in arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 389:119754. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.119754
Firdaus I., Huizink A. C., Kleiboer A., Goudriaan A. E., Kaag A. M. (2025). Gender differences in alcohol-cue-induced craving and heart-rate variability in hazardous drinkers. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 271:112662. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112662
Huizink, A.C., Lammassaari, D., Nolvi, S., Korja, R., Karlsson, L., Karlsson, H., Kataja, E.L. (2024). Antecedents of maternal pregnancy-related anxiety trajectories: The FinnBrain birth cohort study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 150(5), 334-343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acps.13671
Evans, B.E., Huizink, A.C., Greaves-Lord, K., Tulen, J.H.M., Roelofs, K., & van der Ende, J. (2020). Urbanicity, biological stress system functioning and mental health in adolescents. PLoS One, 15(3), e0228659. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228659
van Dijk, W., Oosterman, M., de Vente, W., Jansen, I., Blankers, M., Huizink, A.C. (2024). Smoking cessation in pregnant women: A randomized controlled trial investigating the effectiveness of an eHealth intervention including heart rate variability-biofeedback training. Addictive Behaviors, 154, 108005. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108005
van Dijk, W., Huizink, A.C., Oosterman, M., Lemmers-Jansen, I.L.J., de Vente W. (2023). Validation of Photoplethysmography Using a Mobile Phone Application for the Assessment of Heart Rate Variability in the Context of Heart Rate Variability-Biofeedback. Psychosomatic Medicine, 85(7), 568-576. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000001236
Huizink, A.C., Mulder, E.J., Buitelaar, J.K. (2004). Prenatal stress and risk for psychopathology: specific effects or induction of general susceptibility? Psychological Bulletin, 130(1), 115-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.1.115
Full publication list (external link to Google Scholar)
Click this link to watch Anja participate in the Nobel Week Dialogue in Gothenburg on December 9, 2025, on the topic of adolescent mental health.