Anke Klein is associate professor in the unit Developmental and Educational Psychology of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the transmission of parental psychopathology to their children and increasing the treatment effectiveness of internalizing problems across the lifespan. In addition, In addition, she is in day-to-day charge of the Knowledge Center Anxiety and Stress in Youth, which she founded together with Michiel Westenberg and Anika Bexkens. The mission of this knowlegde center is to help all children and youth and their environment to cope with anxiety and stress.

More information about Anke Klein

Anke Klein is associate professor in the unit Developmental and Educational Psychology of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the transmission of parental psychopathology to their children and increasing the treatment effectiveness of internalizing problems across the lifespan. In addition, In addition, she is in day-to-day charge of the Knowlegde Center Anxiety and Stress in Youth, which she founded together with Michiel Westenberg and Anika Bexkens. The mission of this knowlegde center is to help all children and youth and their environment to cope with anxiety and stress.

Research on anxiety in children

Kleins main research interest is the transmission of parental psychopathology to their children, and the treatment of internalizing disorders across the lifespan. The strength of her research lies in the combination of theoretically driven but clinically relevant studies and the use of different approaches to study normal and abnormal behavior in both children and adults. She currently works on four projects related to:  

1. Childhood specific phobias (funded by ZonMw, LUBEC, Leiden University)
2. Childhood social anxiety and peer relations (funded by NWO, IIE Scholar Rescue Fund, UvA Minds, University of Amsterdam)
3. Cognitive processes in childhood social anxiety (funded by BSI Radboud University, Macquarie University)
4. Loneliness, anxiety and depression across the lifespan (funded by University of Amsterdam, Macquarie University)   

Short CV

Klein combined the studies Pedagogical science and Psychology and obtained three master degrees in Clinical Ortho-pedagogical science, Developmental Psychology and a two-year esearch aster in Psychological Science at the Radboud University, Nijmegen. She received her PhD, Cum Laude, on childhood anxiety at the same university (supervisors Prof. Mike Rinck, Prof. Eni Becker, Prof. Susan Bögels). During her PhD, she collaborated intensively with Prof. Ron Rapee and Prof. Jennifer Hudson and their groups and spent part of her training in their lab, the Centre for Emotional Health, Sydney, Australia.

After her PhD, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam where she was project lead on a large project to test the effectiveness of an online CBT-program for anxiety and depression for university students. In 2016, she received a Niels Stensen Fellowship and worked for 2 years at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany together with Prof. Silvia Schneider and her group. In 2018, Klein received a prestigious 5-year ZonMw individual postdoc fellowship to further develop her own research line and group. Klein came to Leiden in 2019 with her research group.

Grants

Klein has received numerous grants with a total worth of 3.8 million euro. 

• 2021 Projectadvisor on ZonMw individual fellowship awarded to Dr. Anika Bexkens
• 2020 Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility program (PI)
• 2020 Onderwijsinnovatiesubsidie SPIL Program, Gemeente Leiden (Co-PI).
• 2020 IIE Scholar Rescue Fund awarded to Dr. Uysal (Supervisor)
• 2019 Hestia grant, NWO (PI)
• 2019 Incoming Visitor’s Travel Grant, NWO (PI)
• 2019 Travel Grant, Radboud University (PI)
• 2018 Individual Postdoc Fellowship, ZonMw (PI)
• 2018 Joint-PhD fellowship for Ms. Wolters in collaboration with University of Amsterdam and Macquarie University (PI)
• 2018 Project grant for PhD project Ms. Baartmans, University of Amsterdam, UvAminds (CoPI)
• 2017 Distinguished Women Scientists Fund, LNVH (PI)
• 2017 Van der Gaag Early Career Scientist Fund, KNAW (PI)
• 2017 Visiting Fellowship for Prof. Rapee, Radboud University (PI)
• 2017 Project grant, University of Amsterdam (CoPI)
• 2017 Joint-PhD fellowship for Ms. Mobach in collaboration with Radboud University and Macquarie University (PI)
• 2017 Grant to organize an international symposium, Radboud University (PI)
• 2016 Niels Stensen Fellowship (PI)
• 2016 Project Grant, Stichting PFGV (CoPI)
• 2010 Project Grant for PhD project Ms. van Niekerk, ZonMw, Radboud University, ProPersona (CoPI)
• 2009 Outgoing Mobility Scholarship, Radboud University (PI)
• 2008, 2012, 2014 Erasmus Mundus Travel Fellowships (PI)

Previous supervised PhD candidates

• C. Liu Mental health problems among Chinese immigrant adolescents in Western society, 2022 - present. 
• R. Zimmermann Childhood specific phobia: the role of parents, 2022, present. 
• A. Hagen Combining One-session treatment with app-based technology in children with a specific phobia, 2019 - present
• N. Wolters Social connectedness and loneliness in social anxiety and depression across the lifespan, 2018 present
• J. Baartmans The role of peers and parents in childhood social anxiety (completed)
• L. Mobach Interpretation biases in childhood social anxiety: Assessment and prediction of treatment outcome (completed)
• R. van Niekerk The role of parental anxiety in the transmission of anxiety to children (completed)

Registrations

• University Teaching Qualification
• BSI graduate school PhD programme certificate
• BAPD qualification (diagnostic certificate), Dutch Institute for Psychologists
• NVO qualification, Dutch Institute for Remedial Educationalist
• EBL Art Therapy Treatment A, B and C certificates

Publications

This publication list contains Kleins publications from the period before she came to Leiden.