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H.J.M. (Merlin) Nieterau

PhD Candidate
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Preventive Youth Care
Area of expertise: Parenting, Parent-child interactions, Children's mental health and well-being
Photographer: Ron Kefferman
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 129
Postal address
  • Postbus 15776
    1001 NG Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    Merlin Nieterau is a PhD Candidate at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education.

    Her research investigates how parenting and parent-child interactions affect children's mental health. By studying families in their daily lives, she seeks to pinpoint the processes, from small moments to broader patterns, that may contribute to protective or risky pathways. These insights aim to inform more effective support for families.

  • Research

    Research methods 

    • Experience sampling methods (ESM)
    • (Individual Participant Data) Meta-analysis
    • Intervention Studies

    Current research projects

    • Opvoedperikelen [Perils of Parenting]: The goal of this project is to acquire a more in-depth understanding of the underlying networks of symptoms and risk and protective factors in individual families dealing with disruptive child behavior.
  • Teaching

    Bachelor 

    Master 

    • Opvoeding en Ontwikkeling [Parenting and Development]
    • Internship Supervision Master Students
    • Thesis Supervision Master Students 
      Programs: MA Preventive Youth Care, MA Youth at Risk, & MA (Forensic) Orthopedagogics 
  • Publications

    2025

    • Leijten, P., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Backhaus, S., Gardner, F., Groenman, A. P., Dekkers, T. J., van den Hoofdakker, B. J., Laas Sigurðardóttir, L. B., Liu, D., Luman, M., Mansur, L., Nieterau, M., van der Oord, S., Overbeek, G., Psyllou, C., Rienks, K., Schulz, S., & Weisz, J. R. (2025). Have parenting programs for disruptive child behavior become less effective? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70049
    • Nieterau, M., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Overbeek, G., Shaw, D. S., & Leijten, P. (2025). Daily Parental Responses To Disruptive Child Behavior: A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis. Child Psychiatry and Human Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-025-01856-w
    • Runze, J., Nieterau, M., Creasey, N. L., & Overbeek, G. J. (2025). Parenting and polygenic influences: Investigating gene-environment correlations in disruptive child behavior. Development and Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579425100254

    2024

    • Nieterau, M., Shaw, D., Girod, S., & Lansford, J. (2024). Parent-child interactions in early childhood: Towards a more fine-grained understanding [Symposium chair]. In International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD)
    • Pećnik, N., Nieterau, M., Špaček, M., & Leijten, P. (2024). Benefits of the growing up together online parenting program for families in social services in Croatia. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 33(2), 554-567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02770-2 [details]

    2025

    • Nieterau, M. (2025). Parental Warmth as a Buffer Against Coercive Parent-Child Interactions? A Moment-to-Moment Analysis. Poster session presented at SRCD 2025 Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, United States.

    2024

    • Nieterau, M. (2024). Warmte als buffer? Dwars en opstandig kindgedrag en het samenspel van warm en hardhandig opvoedgedrag in het dagelijks gezinsleven.

    2023

    • Nieterau, H. J. M. (2023). An Idiographic Analysis of Daily Coercive Parent-child Interaction Patterns in Families with Children with Emerging Disruptive Behavior. Poster session presented at European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Turku, Finland.

    Prize / grant

    • Nieterau, M. (2025). Travel Grant.

    Media appearance

    Talk / presentation

    • Nieterau, M. (invited speaker) (4-2025). Risk & protective factors of disruptive child behaviors: Insights from daily life, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
    • Nieterau, M. (speaker) (2025). The role of nurturance in parenting program outcomes: An individual participant meta-analysis, 13th International Meeting of the Scientific Research Network
      A Multiple Levels of Analysis Approach to Typical and Atypical
      Development.
    • Nieterau, M. (speaker) (8-10-2024). IMPACT: Exploring Risk and Protective Factors of Disruptive Child Behavior: Insights From Daily Life Can Inform Parenting Interventions, SYNC & PYC Lab Meeting.
    • Nieterau, M. (speaker) (2024). Coercive Parent-Child Interactions: Research Plan of a Moment-to-Moment Analysis, 12th International Meeting of the Scientific Research Network
      A Multiple Levels of Analysis Approach to Typical and Atypical
      Development.
    • Nieterau, M. (speaker) (2023). Daily Coercive Parent-child Interaction Profiles: In Families with Emerging Disruptive Child Behavior, VNOP-CAS Research Days 2023, Utrecht.
    • Nieterau, M. (speaker) (2022). Parenting and disruptive child behavior in daily life, 10th International Meeting of the Scientific Research Network
      A Multiple Levels of Analysis Approach to Typical and Atypical
      Development.

    Others

    • Nieterau, M. (chair) (20-11-2025 - 21-11-2025). VNOP-CAS Research Days 2025, Nijmegen (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nieterau, M. (visiting researcher) (2025). University of Massachusetts Amherst (visiting an external institution).
    • Nieterau, M. (organiser) (11-2024). VNOP-CAS Research Days 2024, Utrecht (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nieterau, M. (participant) (1-7-2024 - 7-7-2024). Training School: Quality family support and research & societal impact [EurofamNet, COST] (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nieterau, M. (participant) (15-6-2024 - 24-6-2024). Workshop: Transdisciplinary Developmental Science to Address Global Societal Challenges: From Local to International Collaboration. At ISSBD by Suman Verma (Panjab University, India); Anne Petersen (University of Michigan, USA); Sander Thomaes (Utrecht University, Netherlands) (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nieterau, M. (organiser) (11-2023). VNOP-CAS Research Days 2023, Utrecht (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nieterau, M. (participant) (2023). Summer school: Modelling the Dynamics of Intensive Longitudinal Data. By Ellen Hamaker and Noémi Schuurman (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • VNOP-CAS Research Days
      Member of the organizing committee
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