Lonneke van Leeuwen

Research mission

As a researcher in the team Public Health Practice, my mission is to promote equal health opportunities for individuals of all ages, with a particular emphasis on youth. My current research, rooted in a passion for promoting healthy lifestyles, centers on understanding the barriers that affect sports participation among disadvantaged youth, especially those from low-income families. This involves gaining a comprehensive understanding of these obstacles and developing and evaluating innovative strategies to overcome them. Furthermore, my research encompasses the evaluation of the implementation of UMCU's Schakelpunt Gezond Leven, a service that empowers patients to enhance their well-being by collaborating with lifestyle consultants.

Background

Before joining the UMCU, I worked as a scientific associate at the Trimbos Institute, Netherlands institute of mental health and addiction in Utrecht (2001-2020). During this period, I contributed to various projects related to youth substance use, suicide prevention, and the impact of media on mental health and substance use. In 2015, I earned a PhD in (health) communication science from Wageningen University & Research. My doctoral research focused on understanding the effects of an Entertainment-Education television series on young viewers' alcohol use and associated psychological processes, such as identification with characters and alcohol outcome expectancies. I was trained as a medical biologist at UMCU in 2000.

• Sports and other lifestyle behaviors
• Youth and young adults
• Health inequalities
• Theory- and evidence-based intervention development
• Evaluations of intervention impact and implementation
• Quantitative and qualitative research
• Socio-ecological approaches to behavior

Most recent grants

2023 EWUU Seed money grant for the project Reaching for success: A feasibility study into how sports empower disadvantaged youth, in collaboration with WUR, UU and TU/e.

2022 Grant from the Utrecht Sports Accord for the project Action research ClubVital@2040: Promoting the utilization of financial support options in Utrecht for children's Sports.

2021 Consortium partner for the ZonMw grant for the Vmbo-Sportlab project: Enhancing sports participation among secondary vocational education (vmbo) students.

2020 Two Sport & Society seed money grants to kickstart the project ClubVital@2040:  inhibiting and facilitating factors for sports participation among youth from low-income families and for the utilization of financial support funds, in collaboration with UU.

2016 Two grants in ZonMw's suicide prevention program to explore the media's role in suicide prevention and to create a manual for schools on how to communicate about suicides.

2016 A grant from ProRail to examine the impact of a suicide delay announcement on railway users' associations with suicide.

Awards

2014 Most promising Wageningen School of Social Science publication for publication: Televised Entertainment-Education to Prevent Adolescent Alcohol Use: Perceived Realism, Enjoyment, and Impact.