Biography

Jessica Asscher (1976) graduated from high school (Christelijk Gymnasium Sorgvliet in The Hague) in 1995. After studying Italian language and culture at the Universita per Stranieri in Perugia (Italy, 1995-1996), she studied Psychology at Leiden University. During her studies she worked as a research assistant at the department of Developmental Psychology of Leiden University, where she participated in various research projects and taught academic skills to first year students. In 2000 she obtained her MA (Cum Laude) in Developmental and Educational Psychology. Following a three month research traineeship at Oxford University (United Kingdom), she worked for a short period at the Hogeschool Rotterdam as an educational policy advisor and as a Psychology teacher. 

In October 2001 she entered a PhD program at the University of Amsterdam, where she conducted an evaluation of the Home-Start parenting support program (PhD defense: October 2005). In June 2005 she was appointed to a postdoctoral fellowship at Utrecht University, where she worked on the evaluation of Multisystemic Therapy (Multisystemic Therapy with violent antisocial adolescents and their families: effectiveness, mechanisms of change and differential response). 

From December 2008 - July 2013 she worked as an assistant professor and from  July 2013 as an associate professor at Forensic Youth Care Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (Department of Educational Sciences). She is coordinator of the Master program and teaches the course "Methods and Statistics of Forensic Child and Youth Care". She is project leader of the effectiveness study of New Perspectives upon Return (evaluation of after care programme for delinquents, aged from 16-23) and of the evaluation of the Tools4U skills training for juvenile offenders.

Research Interests

• Effectiveness of prevention/ intervention
• Parenting support programs
• (Risk and protective factors for) development of parenting - and child behavior problems
• Delinquency and antisocial behavior
• Parent - child dyadic interaction

Publications

(see metis); most recent/ in press:

2013

1. Al, C. M. W., Stams, G.J.J.M., van der Laan, P.H., & Asscher, J. J. (in press). A program evaluation of the Family Crisis Intervention Program (FCIP): relating program characteristics to change. Child and Family Social Work

2. Asscher; J.J., Wissink, I.B., Deković; M., Stams, G.J.J.M., & Prinzie, P. (in press). Delinquent behavior, negative relationship with parents and deviant peers in delinquent and non-delinquent adolescents: different processes, informant bias, or both? International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology

3. Asscher, J.J., Dekovic, M., Wissink, I.B., Van Vugt, E.S.,  Stams, G.J.J.M, & Manders, W. A. (2013). Ethnic differences in the relationship between psychopathy and delinquency in a sample of juvenile delinquents. Psychology, Crime and Law http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1068316X.2012.749475.

4. Asscher, J. J., Dekovic, M., Manders, W.A., Van der Laan, P.H., Prins, P.J.M., & Dutch MST Cost Effectiveness Research Group (2013). A randomized clinical trial of Multisystemic Therapy in The Netherlands. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 9, 167-187 DOI 10.1007/s11292-012-9165-9

5. Hermanns, J. M. A., Asscher, J. J., Zijlstra, B. Hoffenaar, P., & Dekovic, M. (in press). Long-term changes in parenting and child behavior after the Home-Start parenting program. Children and Youth Services Review http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.01.017

6. James, C., Stams, G.J.J.M., Asscher, J.J., Van der Laan, P.H., & De Roo, A.C. (2013). Aftercare programs for reducing recidivism among juvenile and young adult offenders: A Meta-Analytic Review. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 263-274.

7. Manders, W. A., Dekovic, M., Asscher, J. J., van der Laan, P. H., & Prins, P. J. M. (In press). Psychopathic traits as predictor and moderator of Multisystemic Treatment outcomes. Among adolescents treated for antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

8. Van den Akker, A. L., Dekovic, M., Asscher, J. J., Shiner, R., & Prinzie, P. (in press). Personality Types in Childhood:  Relations to Latent Trajectory Classes of  roblem Behavior and Overreactive Parenting Across the Transition into Adolescence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology [IF: 5.076]

9. Van den  Akker, A.L., Dekovic, M., Prinzie, P., Asscher, J. J., & Widiger, T. (in    press). The Development of Personality Extremity from Childhood to Adolescence: Relations to Internalizing and Externalizing Problems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

10. Van der Put, C., Stams, G. J., Asscher, J.J., van der Laan, P., Jonkman, E., Breuk, R., & Doreleijers, T. (2012). Effects of participant and program characteristics on treatment efficacy in a juvenile forensic psychiatric setting. Journal of Comparative Criminology and Offender Therapy, in press.

11. Van der Put, C. E., Asscher, J. J., & Stams (in press). Differences between juvenile offenders with and without AD(H)D in the prevalence and impact of risk and   protective factors. Journal of Attention Disorders

12. Van der Put, C. E., Asscher, J. J., Wissink, I. B., & Stams, G. J. J. M. (in press). The relationship between victimization of maltreatment and sexual and violent offending: Differences between adolescent offenders with and without intellectual disability. Journal of Learning Disabilities

13. Van Vugt, E.S. , Asscher, J.J. , Hendriks, J., Stams, G.J.J.M., Bijleveld, C.C.J.H. & Van der Laan, P.H. (in press) The relationship between psychopathy and moral development in young sex offenders. Psychology, Crime & Law, (2012), Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/1068316X.2010.533177. 

14. Wissink, I.B., Dekovic, M., Stams, G. J.J.M., Asscher, J. J., Rutten, E., & Zijlstra, B. (in press). Moral Orientation and Relationships in School and Adolescent Pro- and Antisocial Behaviors: a Multi-Level Study. Journal of School Nursing

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