Jana Runze is an assistant professor at the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the role of environmental (such as parenting and attachment) and genetic factors in the social and psychobiological development of children.

More information about Jana Runze

More about Jana

Jana Runze focuses on interdisciplinary research investigating the role of genes, the environment (in particular parenting and parental mental health), gene-environment correlation and interaction in children's attachment and development.

She makes use of behavior and molecular genetic methods, with a preference for longitudinal studies with observational measures.

Together with a large team of international researchers from more than seven countries, she is conducting a MASEM (meta-analytical structural equation model) study to examine the potential role of parenting in the intergenerational transmission of mental health problems from parents to their children as well as bidirectional associations between parental and child mental health.

Additionally, she is involved in two projects in collaboration with the Amsterdam UMC: 1) a user-centered participatory study to create a publicly available data dashboard about mental health in youth in the Netherlands and 2) a citizen-science study in which youth co-interpret scientific results and co-translate these results to action points for societal stakeholders.

Short cv

2026 - present
Assistant Professor, Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies, Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University

2025
Postdoctoral Researcher, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Amsterdam University Medical Center

2023 - 2025
Postdoctoral Researcher, Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam

2019 - 2023
PhD Candidate, Clinical Child and Family Studies, VU Amsterdam

2017 - 2019
M. Sc. (Research) Behavioral Sciences, Radboud University Nijmegen

2014 - 2017
B. Sc. Psychology, University of Twente

Teaching activities

Contributions to several courses in the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Education and Child Studies, e.g.:

- Introduction to clinical family studies
- Internship forensic family studies
- Bachelor research project
- Master theses

Grants and awards (selection)

2026 SEAS Dissertation Award
2026 AUF Impact Call Grant
2026 ZonMW Implementatie-impuls COVID-19 programma

Working days

From ]Monday to Friday