Stagiair Onderzoek

Rutgers is the leading Dutch center of expertise on sexuality. We are active nationally and internationally in approximately 20 countries. Together with other civil society organizations, professionals in the field, and experts by experience, we advocate for positive change on issues that matter and have a major impact on people’s health and lives. We work to improve sexual rights, access to education and information about sexuality, access to contraception and safe abortions, and the prevention of sexual violence. We do this in various ways. Rutgers connects research, practice, and advocacy. We are here for everyone, with a special focus on young people. We speak out against injustice and for important human values, especially when these are under pressure or overlooked. In doing so, we are mindful of diversity in context and culture. Our organization is made up of 80 passionate professionals in the Netherlands.  

What will you be doing?

During your internship, you’ll contribute to research on the effectiveness of mental health interventions for young people in the LGBTQ+ community. You’ll be involved in a realist evaluation study as well as the process evaluation of the No Pressure intervention. Your tasks for each project are detailed below.

Realist evaluation study - Bright Spots in the Rainbow

Lichtpuntjes aims to promote the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth in high school. To achieve this, effective elements from Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSA), SchoolsOUT, and e-learning modules on mental health and healthy social media use are combined. Rutgers is evaluating Lichtpuntjes using a Realist Evaluation.

 For this research, you will work on developing a theoretical foundation for the Realist Evaluation. We refer to this theoretical foundation as the Initial Program Theory (IP). The IP is developed in co-creation with GSA students, teachers, and school administrators. In addition, we collaborate with partners COC Netherlands, GGD Gelderland Zuid, Movisie, Expex, Stedelijke Scholengemeenschap Nijmegen, and various universities (UvA, UU, RUG, VU, and the Realist Lab at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp).

During your internship, you will contribute to:

• Organizing and conducting co-creation workshops with students, teachers, and school administrators

• Supporting the development and refinement of the initial program theory (IP)

• Recruiting participating high schools

• Supporting the setup of the pilot study
  

Process Evaluation – No Pressure

No Pressure aims to prevent sexually transgressive behavior and (ex-)partner violence among young people (ages 14–21) by reducing minority stress. The intervention was developed within Act4Respect, a collaboration between Rutgers, Atria, and COC Netherlands.

In the process evaluation, we examine how the intervention is implemented and experienced in practice. You will contribute to the following tasks:

• Refining research tools (such as topic lists, methodology, and recruitment strategy)

• Assisting with data collection (e.g., interviews and/or observations)

• Contributing to the analysis of the data

• Potentially contributing to the process evaluation report

• Collaborating within the Act4Respect research team
  

You will be offered an educational internship where you will gain experience with various aspects of research. You will not be working alone, but as part of two enthusiastic research teams. During your internship, you will be involved in the Research program. You are also welcome to attend the meetings and presentations of the Rutgers national program

Our researchers Ran van der Wal and Javier Koole will supervise you during your internship.

Who we are looking for

• You are pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree in social, behavioral, or health sciences, or a comparable field, or are enrolled in a bachelor’s program in the same field

• You have an affinity for supporting (LGBTQ+) youth

• You have an excellent command of the Dutch language, both spoken and written

• You are a self-starter who can work independently

• You are open to different opinions and perspectives

• You work with care

• You consider promoting sexual health just as important as we do

For this position, we encourage LGBTI+ individuals to apply, as the research is aimed at this target group.