Centre for Population, Family and Health - CPFH

09/06/2026

Yesterday, CPFH colleague Elke Claessens had the honor and pleasure of serving as an opponent alongside emeritus Prof. Dr. Robert Emery for the public doctoral defence of Maria Morbech at the University of Oslo. The impressive PhD dissertation, titled "Children in post-separation residence arrangements: Family characteristics, relationship dynamics, and children’s mental health", offered the opportunity for a very inspiring discussion, with wonderful celebrations afterwards.

🎓 Congratulations to Dr. Maria Morbech on achieving this academic milestone!

28/05/2026

World Menstrual Health Day! 🌍🩸

CPFH colleagues Anna Wallays, Amina Yakhlaf and Jolien Inghels attended the ‘Gender and Health’ event of Vlaanderen is Inclusief on this important day.

Throughout this inspiring event, personal experiences, societal attitudes, and structural barriers surrounding menstruation and menopause in Flanders took centre stage. Discussions focused on:
• the research project ‘Red Flags and Hot Flushes’ (Rode Vlaggen en Vapeurs)
• menstrual wellbeing in education and among young people (BruZelle)
• period poverty (Caritas)
• menstruation in the context of female ge***al mutilation/cutting (GAMS Belgium)
• and the importance of research! (for example the Isala project)

Our main takeaways? That there is still a major lack of language and openness to talk about menstruation- and menopause-related complaints. That medical knowledge about women’s bodies still too often falls short. And above all: that menstruation should no longer be something we whisper about.

No more hiding tampons in sleeves or pockets. No more having to invent excuses for “that one inconvenient day”. It is time to continue breaking the taboo.

Would you like to contribute to research on this topic, specifically on PMS, and are you a person who menstruates? Then be sure to fill out the online survey by our colleagues at the GHent Experimental Psychiatry Lab: https://www.gheplab.ugent.be/msg/grote-steekproefstudie-naar-premenstrueel-syndroom-in-vlaandere

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GHent Experimental Psychiatry LAB

28/05/2026

🌟CPFH was well represented at the Dag van de Sociologie 2026, hosted at the University of Antwerp! 🌟

Several CPFH colleagues presented research on a wide range of timely and socially relevant topics, including singlehood, pre-abortion counseling, medicalized female ge***al cutting, family involvement in mental health decision-making, and practicum experiences in childcare professions. We were also proud to see several thesis students contribute with presentations on a host of topics, including maternal gatekeeping, religious influence on abortion attitudes, parental agency, and the work-life balance of single parents in shared custody.

A great showcase of the breadth, relevance, and societal engagement of sociological research at CPFH. 👏

22/05/2026

📢 New publication alert!

CPFH colleagues Dries van Gasse and Nina Van Eekert have published a new article exploring how single fathers in Belgium navigate caregiving and breadwinning after divorce or separation.

📖 Based on qualitative interviews with single fathers across diverse socio-economic backgrounds, the study examines how societal expectations around fatherhood and work shape fathers’ everyday experiences and their ability to balance employment and care responsibilities. Their findings reveal a typology of four fathering strategies among Belgian single fathers: withdrawn fathering, traditional breadwinning, performing “daddycation” and family-centred fathering.

💡 The study illustrates that expectations surrounding fatherhood shape how single fathers combine work and care responsibilities, highlighting how broader social norms and inequalities shape post-separation family life.

👉 Read the full article via the link below 👇
https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2026.2661381

20/05/2026

📢 New publication alert!

A new article, “Sexual harassment protocols at the European universities: An overview of key components and recommendations for improvement”, co-authored by Anneleen De Cuyper, has just been published in PLOS ONE.

The study analyses and compares sexual harassment protocols across seven European universities, highlighting both good practices and important shortcomings in how higher education institutions address sexual harassment.

Key findings include:
💡 Sexual harassment protocols differ considerably across the seven universities studied.

💡 Some universities provide comprehensive protocols with procedural, preventive and reparative measures, while others show important gaps.

💡 A practical intersectional approach is largely missing from the analysed protocols.

📖 Read the open-access article via the link below 👇

Protocols against sexual harassment (SH) have been widely adopted in European universities as part of a broader structural gender approach in higher education and research institutions. However, existing literature indicates that these protocols have often been insufficient. In particular, there is....

18/05/2026

📢 New on the lasting social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among older Europeans 📢

In a new study published in the European Journal of Ageing, CPFH colleague Zeynep Zümer Batur and colleagues from the University of Antwerp, Ghent University and Erasmus University Rotterdam analysed data from more than 15,000 older adults across Europe. Their findings show that feelings of loneliness remained elevated long after pandemic restrictions disappeared, especially among older women and the oldest age groups.

The study highlights how social vulnerability, gender inequalities and policy responses shaped experiences of loneliness during and after COVID-19, underlining the importance of investing in social connectedness and accessible support networks for older adults.

👉 Read the news article via the link below👇

30/04/2026

📢 Looking back at the “Divorce in Flanders II” Study Day 📢

Yesterday, researchers, respondents, and professionals gathered at the University of Antwerp for an inspiring day of exchange. Building on the legacy of the original Divorce in Flanders study, DIF-II offers a fresh perspective on how separation, parenting, and family life continue to evolve in Flanders.

Along with researchers from the UGent and PXL, CPFH colleagues Romy De Laet, Dimitri Mortelmans, and Elke Claessens shared valuable insights on key themes such as alimony, custody, and child perspectives.

🎉 The day also marked the official release of the DIF-II dataset, opening new avenues for research and collaboration.

Thank you to everyone who joined and contributed!

27/04/2026

📢 Publication alert!
Laura Vroonen, Linda Campbell, PhD, Edwin Wouters, Emilie Op de Beeck, Josefien van Olmen, Tijs Van Iseghem, and Caroline Masquillier have published a new article in BMC Health Services Research, titled “Reciprocal innovation to improve access to primary healthcare in Belgium: adaptation and development of a community health worker intervention.

🌍 The article details the development of the COMPASS intervention, a community health worker model adapted from Brazil and South Africa to fit the Belgian primary healthcare system. Through qualitative fieldwork in Belgium and South Africa, field visits to Brazil and the UK, co-creation workshops with stakeholders, and pilot testing, the study shows how health service innovations can be adapted across contexts in a transparent, systematic, and context-sensitive way.

💡 The key takeaway? Community health worker models are increasingly recognised as a promising example of reciprocal innovation for high-income countries, but transferring them across contexts requires careful adaptation to local health systems, community needs, and implementation conditions.

👉 Read the full article here:

Widening health inequities in Belgium highlight the need for proactive, outreach-oriented primary care models. Large-scale community health worker programm

20/04/2026

🎉 New publication!

Anneleen De Cuyper and Sarah Van de Velde's most recent article, “Are We Asking the Right Questions? A Belgian Case Study on the Sexual Harassment Prevalence Gap,” has been published in the journal Violence Against Women.

🔎 The article examines an important puzzle in research on sexual harassment: why reported prevalence rates often differ depending on how questions are asked. Using a Belgian case study, the research highlights a gap between people’s lived experiences of harassment and how they interpret or label those experiences.

The findings suggest that many individuals struggle to recognize or categorize their experiences as sexual harassment due to stereotypes, social norms, and narrow understandings of what “counts” as harassment.

📖 You can read the article here:

Sexual harassment (SH) in higher education has been extensively researched, yet no consensus has been reached on how to define or measure the problem. In practi...

16/04/2026

🌟 Newly published article:

“The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness in European older women and men: a growth curve analysis.”

In this study, CPFH member Zeynep, together with Katrijn Delaruelle, Dimitri Mortelmans, Pearl Dykstra, Piet Bracke, and Jorik Vergauwen, examined the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness among adults aged 65 and over across 27 European countries.

Drawing on longitudinal SHARE data from the pre-pandemic period, two SHARE Corona surveys, and the post-pandemic wave, the researchers show that loneliness increased significantly during the later phase of the pandemic and remained elevated afterwards. The study also highlights that women were particularly vulnerable and that stricter containment measures were associated with higher levels of loneliness.

Read the article here:

This study examines the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness among adults aged 65 and over across 27 European countries, focusing on gender differences and the role of government-imposed containment measures. Using longitudinal data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing....