PhD Intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic inequality and mental health

Mental health disorders arise through a complex interaction between genetic, social and environmental factors. Within the INHERIT project, you investigate how socioeconomic status (SES) contributes to the intergenerational transmission of mental health vulnerability. Although psychiatric disorders are partly heritable, genetic variation alone does not explain the full risk. This project therefore focuses on mechanisms such as dynastic effects (genetic nurture), gene-environment correlation and epigenetic processes.

You work within a multidisciplinary consortium that combines expertise in psychiatry, epidemiology, statistical genetics and epigenetics. The project builds on large Dutch cohort studies, including NESDA, GROUP, DBC, MARIO, Generation R and Lifelines. This gives you access to unique longitudinal datasets across clinical, high-risk and population-based cohorts.

You become part of a larger research team that includes two postdoctoral researchers, a dedicated data manager and senior investigators across multiple work packages. Through structured supervision, regular consortium meetings and close collaboration, you have ample opportunity to further develop your methodological and scientific skills.

As a PhD candidate, you investigate how social and biological factors jointly contribute to mental health across generations. You work with large-scale cohort and genetic datasets and contribute to innovative analytical approaches within psychiatric epidemiology.

Your work includes:

• quantifying dynastic effects using family-based designs and polygenic scores;
• modelling gene-environment correlations between SES and psychiatric outcomes;
• analysing epigenetic signatures of socioeconomic exposure and their intergenerational transmission;
• integrating findings across domains to identify modifiable mechanisms relevant for prevention and policy;
• writing scientific publications and presenting your findings at national and international conferences.

You are analytically strong, enjoy interdisciplinary collaboration and have a strong interest in the relationship between social inequality and mental health.

You also have:

• a completed master’s degree in psychiatry, psychology, epidemiology, biomedical sciences, data science or a related field;
• affinity with quantitative and computational research methods;
• experience with statistical programming languages such as R, Python or similar software;
• interest in interdisciplinary research at the interface of social and biological determinants of health;
• excellent communication skills and a strong command of spoken and written English.

Experience with genetic or epigenetic data, longitudinal analyses or genomic structural equation modelling (genomic SEM) is considered an advantage, but is not required.