Prof. Bart Van de Putte

Prof. Bart Van de Putte teaches specialized courses in social demography (‘migration and integration’, ‘seminar in social demography’), besides introductory courses in sociology and courses in general sociology such as ‘social inequality’ and ‘social change’. His research focuses at topics in historical sociology and demography. Of special interest are mortality differences by class, partner selection patterns and the romantization of marriage. Besides these substantial issues, he is also specialized in the classification of (historical) occupational titles and the construction of class schemes. He is board member of the Scientific Research Community in Historical Demography, and visiting fellow of the Centre for Economic Demography at the Lund University School of Economics and Management.

Contact: Bart.VandePutte@ugent.be

Publications: http://lib.ugent.be/bibliografie/802000081979 

 

Prof. Piet Bracke

Piet Bracke (1961°) is a full professor at the Department of Sociology. He teaches general sociological courses at the undergraduate level: introduction in sociology, the sociology of social problems, sociological research and methods– and more specialized master courses in the sociology of health and illness. His research focuses on gender issues and the sociology of the family; social epidemiology from a comparative perspective; mental health, mental health services research are important fields of research too.

At present, he collaborates in a Flemish research project on divorce ‘Scheiding in Vlaanderen’ and in an international survey on the determinants and consequences of stigma

He is a member of the executive committee of the European Society of Health and Medical Sociology (ESHMS), a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Social Survey, a member of the Scientific Committee for Social, Political, and Communication Sciences of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), and the present chair of the Department of Sociology.

Contact: Piet.Bracke@UGent.be

Dr. Wendy Christiaens

Wendy Christiaens is Senior Researcher at the Ghent University, Department of Sociology. Her current and future work concentrates on the transition to parenthood in a cross-national, longitudinal and multi-actor perspective. The interaction between care-arrangements and daily life conditions (e.g., work) during the transition and its consequences for parents’ well-being are central to her work.

Contact: Wendy.Christiaens@UGent.be

 

Dr. Charlotte Van Tuyckom

Charlotte Van Tuyckom is postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University’s Department of Sociology (Faculty of Political and Social Sciences), Belgium and is also affiliated as a research fellow with the Institut für Europäische Sportentwicklung und Freizeitforschung (Sporthochschule Köln, Germany).  She teaches in the field of multivariate data analysis, introduction to social research and health sociology. Her research focuses on sport participation, physical activity and health from a cross-national comparative perspective. In 2011 she finished her Phd in Sociology, titled ‘Sport for All: Fact or fiction? Individual and cross-national differences in sport participation from a European perspective’ which covers cross-country differences with respect to both the level and the social stratification of sport participation. Charlotte is author/co-editor of several books and (inter)national publications, in among others European Journal for Sport and Society, Sport, Education & Society, Quality & Quantity, Journal of Sports Sciences, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, etc. She is always ready for a (beach-)volleyball game or a quick run and loves skiing during the winter.

Contact: Charlotte.VanTuyckom@ugent.be

Publications: http://lib.ugent.be/bibliografie/801002035239

 

Dr. Mieke Verhaeghe

Mieke Verhaeghe is a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Research Foundation Flanders. Her main research interest is situated within the sociology of mental health, with specific focus on stigmatization, peer support and mental health services research. Concerning her stigma research, she examines organizational characteristics affecting stigma experiences of mental health service users. A new research focus is cross-national comparative research on mental health and mental health service use in general, and on stigmatization in particular. She teaches sociology of health and illness, as well as multivariate data-analysis.

Contact: Mieke.verhaeghe@ugent.be

 

Ricardo Ayala Valenzuela

Ricardo is a Ph.D. qualitative researcher who works on sociology of labour, professions, and professionalization in nursing in Latin-America.  He develops a theoretical framework in order to stimulate new hypothesis related to social class, ethnicity, gender, socialization, domination, and inequalities in health organizations. His work includes ethnographic exploration as a means of understanding nursing occupation from a deconstructing perspective.
The practical implications of his research are aimed to support professionalism and professional development.

Contact: RicardoAlexis.AyalaValenzuela@UGent.be

Elien Colman

Elien Colman is a doctoral researcher working on the interacademic project ‘Divorce in Flanders’. She collaborates on the preparation of the data collection for this multi-actor survey on the causes and consequences of divorce. In her research, she focuses on the mental and physical health consequences of divorce, and the use of medical and social services after divorce. While divorce is a life event which affects multiple actors, these consequences for health and service use are examined not only for the (ex-) partners, but also for their children and parents.

Contact: Elien.Colman@UGent.be

Publications: http://lib.ugent.be/bibliografie/801001972490

Mieke Eeckhaut

Mieke Eeckhaut is a teaching assistant at the Department of Sociology of Ghent University. She is affiliated to

Hedera for her PhD research (thesis supervisor: Prof.dr. Bart Van de Putte). The focus of her PhD is on (educational) heterogamy within (married) couples. More specifically, it consists of three interrelated parts. A first part deals with the methodological question of how to best analyze (educational) heterogamy (article published in European Sociological Review), and studies the related nature of heterogamy and convergence effects. A second part focuses on two consequences of educational heterogamy that have so far been understudied: the link with cultural differences in child-rearing, and female labor market participation. The last part again deals with the link between heterogamy and cultural differences. By comparing the divorce rates of Turkish/Moroccans in Belgium who are married to a Belgian Turkish/Moroccan partner versus a partner from the country of origin, we illustrate the complexity of this link. That is, we show that (ethnic) homogamy and cultural similarity do not necessarily coincide (article published in International Migration Review).

In addition to her PhD research, Mieke teaches practical courses in demography and statistics, and assists in the seminar on Social Demography for the Master of Sociology.

Contact: Mieke.Eeckhaut@ugent.be

Publications: http://lib.ugent.be/bibliografie/802000112291

Sarah Missinne

Sarah Missinne holds a master degree in Sociology (UGent) and Statistics (Quantitative Analysis for the Social Sciences, KULeuven). She is affiliated with the Health & Demographic Research group at the department of Sociology at Ghent University (FWO-fellow).

The aim of her Phd is to adopt a life course perspective on preventive health care use in order to shed new lights on the mechanism underlying the persistent socio-economic inequalities in preventive health care use. Longitudinal analyses are performed, making use of the data of the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE).

Other research interests are cross-national research methodology, (ethnic) inequalities in mental health, the institutional set-up of health care systems and their perceived legitimacy

Contact: Sarah.Missinne@Ugent.be

Publications: http://lib.ugent.be/bibliografie/802000544145

Elise Pattyn

Elise Pattyn approaches the topic of mental health by means of cross-national research. She focuses on the effect of education and contextual factors on depressive complaints and studies the prevailing attitudes towards mentally ill people among the general population. She is also involved in carrying out the Popov-project which will outline the network of transfers of psychiatric patients to other wards or hospitals with special attention paid to difficult cases.

Contact: Elise.Pattyn@UGent.be

Charlotte Sercu

Charlotte Sercu has a master degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology (2009). Since October 2010 she is working as a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Ghent, financed by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). She is investigating behaviors, beliefs and attitudes of mental health professionals towards mental health service users and the organization of mental health care in Flanders. In her study she pays specific attention to the individual, inter-personal and structural origins of these behaviors, believes and attitudes. Furthermore, she investigates the way the organization of care and the specific attitudes and behaviors of professionals are experienced by service users in the different care settings.

Contact: Charlotte.Sercu@ugent.be

Sara Symoens

Sara Symoens is a doctoral researcher working on the project ‘Divorce in Flanders’, which is an interacademic project (UGent, UA, KUL and VUB) with the goal to capture the causes and consequences of divorce in Flanders. She collaborates on the preparation of the data collection for this multi-actor survey and on the first analyses. Her research focuses on the topic of divorce and mental health on the one hand, and on work-life conflict and satisfaction on the other. The purpose of both studies is, in part, to make some effective and feasible policy proposals.

Considering the topic of work-life conflict, it is remarkable that in Flanders, in comparison with other Western countries, high scores of conflict persist, both for men and women. Also with regard to satisfaction with work and one’s family life, Flanders has still a long way to go. Using the data of the International Social Survey Program( ISSP, 2002), the impact of work- and family related factors are explored, as well as the impact of spill-over on life satisfaction. Specific attention is paid on the situation in Flanders and on gender differences.

The research on the topic of divorce focuses on the impact of divorce or separation on the mental health of ex-partners. The purpose of this research is to focus in depth on multiple outcomes of mental health in order to fully capture the differences in psychological well-being by marital status. Additionally, possible gender differences are taken into account, as well as the extent to which specific social-relational and socio-economic factors can explain these differences.

Contact: Sara.Symoens@UGent.be

Sarah Van de Velde

Sarah Van de Velde is a doctoral researcher at Hedera, focusing on gender differences in depression across Europe. Cross-national comparisons of the prevalence of depression in the general populations in Europe are examined using the third round of the European Social Survey. Depression is measured using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression (CES-D) scale.

The aim of the researcher is threefold: First, the CES-D scale is validated using confirmatory factor analysis. This enables elimination of measurement bias caused by differential response styles across gender and cultures. Second, population patterns of risk factors that might help explain gender differences in health across Europe are identified. Risk factors include social-relational and socio-economic stressors and mediators. Third, large-scale cultural, social, economic and political processes in society that produce gender differences in depression are examined. Hypotheses guiding this research are derived from modernization theory, gender stratification theory, as well as the gendered organization of the welfare states.

Contact: Sarah.VandeVelde@ugent.be

Nina Van den Driessche

Nina Van den Driessche is a doctoral researcher at the Sociology Department of Ghent University. The modernization of the western world, marital mobility and group formation are the focus of her PhD-project (promoter: Prof. Dr. Bart Van de Putte).

The aim is conducting international comparative historical demographic research on marital partner selection differentials (1800-1914). Marital information has been well-documented throughout the 19th century (by means of civil or church marriage certificates or indirect via censuses). This provides us with extensive databases which can be easily compared to each other.

In general, this projects aims at refining the theoretical model and in addition to this there is also a methodological objective, namely the further implementation of the SOCPO-scheme (Van de Putte & Miles, 2005), a social power class scheme using information on both occupation and property.

Contact: Nina.VandenDriessche@ugent.be

Koen Van der Bracht

Koen Van der Bracht is a doctoral researcher focusing on the religion of ethnic minorities in Europe. The aim is to examine (1) intergenerational differences in religiosity, (2) the influence of discrimination and (3) contextual influences. Starting from social integration theory we analyze if, and to what extent, there are differences in religiosity between first and second generation migrants in Europe. Next, we assess the influence of discrimination on migrant religiosity in general and on the second generation in particular. Finally we examine the influence of native European religiosity on migrant religiosity, again with special attention to the differences between subsequent generations. The research will be conducted using the large-scale European Social Survey (ESS) data, containing respondents from 29 countries. Prof. Dr. Bart Van de Putte is promotor of the PhD research and it is funded by the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Ghent University.

Contact: Koen.VanderBracht@ugent.be

  

Klaartje Van Kerckem

Klaartje Van Kerckem has a master degree in Sociology and Germanic Languages and is since 2007 employed as a teaching assistant at the Sociology Department of Ghent University, where she teaches different methodological and statistical workshops, and co-teaches the master course Migration and Integration (together with Prof. Dr. Bart Van de Putte).
Klaartje’s PhD project (under supervision of B. Van de Putte) deals with micro-level acculturation processes of children and grandchildren of Turkish migrants, with a focus on the role of ethnic boundaries. The aim of this research is threefold: first, it examines how Turkish Belgians negotiate and position themselves vis-à-vis the different cultural repertoires and corresponding identities they come into contact with. Second, it explores how both the ethnic minority group and (members of) the majority population influence individual acculturation processes through the construction and maintenance of ethnic and social boundaries. Finally, it focuses on how individuals negotiate these social and ethnic boundaries as constructed by both the majority and the minority group.
Theoretically, the work can be situated within the assimilation paradigm, which is combined with perspectives from segmented assimilation theory and boundary work. Additional to this theoretical focus, her PhD project also focuses on the methodological aspects of her study. In particular, a great deal of attention is devoted to cross-gender interactions and how the related challenges can be negotiated.

Contact: Klaartje.VanKerckem@ugent.be

Anina Vercruyssen

The PhD reseach, with Prof. Dr. Bart Van de Putte as promoter, focuses on ‘the underestimation of work-family conflict’.

This underestimation of work-family conflict, and of possible consequences of work-family conflict for well-being, is due to intrinsic and methodological issues. For both issues, several trails are investigated in order to attain an overall picture of possible biases in research on work-family conflict.

Using data from the pilot project ‘combination of work/family and time use of Flemish mothers’ (own data collection in 2007 and 2008) and international datasets, such as the datasets of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), the research aim is to investigate social desirability bias, selection bias and other possible sources of error.

Contact: Anina.Vercruyssen

Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe

Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe has a master degree in History (2006) and in Sociology (2008). Since October 2008 he is working as a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Ghent, financed by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). Moreover, between January and August 2011 he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Social Change of the University of Manchester. In addition, he sometimes writes for the centre-left think tank Poliargus. In his doctoral research, he examines the role of social networks for the labour market performances of ethnic minorities. His academic interests include social stratification, ethnic diversity and inequalities, social cohesion, social networks, labour market performances and public health.

Contact: PieterPaul.Verhaeghe@UGent.be

Publications: http://lib.ugent.be/bibliografie/802000110069

Marie-Christine Brault

Marie-Christine Brault is a PhD Candidate at the department of sociology at Université de Montréal, in Canada. Her thesis takes place within the field of sociology of mental health and focuses particularly on the diagnosis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the stimulant intake among youth. Her research aims to describe time trends in the prevalence of these phenomena and to identify social factors associated with these changes of prevalence.

Thanks to a scholarship from the Québec Interuniversity Center for Social Statistical (QICSS), she is now collaborating with Hedera, under the supervision of Piet Bracke. During her stay at UGhent, she is working with the Panel study of Belgian Household (PSBH) to specify whether it is the age, the cohort membership or other social factors that is responsible for the increase in the frequency of depressive symptoms among Belgian adults.

Contact: mc.brault@umontreal.ca