“Who am I and who do I want to become are critical identity questions young people ask themselves. Establishing a strong identity serves as an important psychological resource that guides young people in their daily lives”   

Andrik is an assistant professor at the Youth & Family department, Utrecht University. During his PhD (Cum Laude) and postdoc Andrik established an interdisciplinary research line to study how key psychological, social, and neurobiological processes contribute to identity development across adolescence and young adulthood. Andrik also investigates possible psychosocial consequences of ongoing identity uncertainty in adolescence to ultimately answer the question why some adolescents thrive more than others. Part of his research is embedded in the gravitation program Consortium on Individual Development (CID) (http://www.individualdevelopment.nl/). For (a selection of) his other research projects see the section 'Research'.

In his most recent work Andrik investigates when how and why young people develop an ecological identity and pro-environmental lifestyle to contribute to our knowledge how to promote pro-environmental behavior. More information about one of our recently funded NWA projects see:

https://nwa-jeugd.nl/onderzoeken/klimaatstress-bij-scholieren-verminderen

Andrik received his master’s degrees in the research master Development and Socialisation in Childhood and Adolescence (DaSCA, Cum Laude) and the master Orthopedagogics (Cum Laude) at Utrecht University. He obtained his PhD (Cum Laude) in pedagogical sciences in 2019. 

Current PhD students: