Kim Alyousefi-van Dijk
Organisation(s)
Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
Overview
Kim is a behavioural neuroscientist with a focus on early parenting interventions, perinatal parenting quality and relevant neurobiological mechanisms. Currently, Kim Alyousefi-van Dijk works as a Trial Manager for the Circle of Security Intervention (COSI) study at the Anna Freud Centre, under the direction of Professor Peter Fonagy. The COSI study examines the effects of the intervention on reducing maternal mental health symptoms and increasing the quality of mothers’ bond with their babies in perinatal mental health services across England.
Previous to her current role, Kim was a PhD student at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Under the supervision of professors Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marinus van IJzendoorn and Carlo Schuengel, she was involved in the development of the Prenatal Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting for expectant fathers using live ultrasound images. The focus of her doctoral dissertation was the neurobiological and behavioural aspects of men’s transition into fatherhood.
Prior to that, Kim worked for the Netherlands Brain Bank for Psychiatry and the psychotrauma department of the Academic Medical Centre of Amsterdam. She obtained a research master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and bachelor’s degrees in both psychology and psychobiology at the University of Amsterdam.
Recent published works:
Alyousefi-van Dijk, K., de Waal, N, van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2021). Development and feasibility of the Prenatal Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting for expectant fathers. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology. doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2021.1886258
Alyousefi-van Dijk, K., van der Knaap, N., Buisman, R.S.M., Horstman, L.I., Lotz, A.M., Riem, M.M.W., Schuengel, C., van IJzendoorn, M.H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2020). White matter integrity moderates the relation between experienced childhood maltreatment and fathers’ behavioral response to infant crying. Developmental Psychobiology. doi.org/10.1002/dev.22058
Alyousefi-van Dijk, K., Thijssen, S., van 't Veer, A. E., Buisman, R. S. M., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2020, July 7). Exploring the transition into fatherhood: behavioral, hormonal, and neural underpinnings of responses to infant crying. PsyArXiv. doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5bxk9
Alyousefi-van Dijk, K., van ‘t Veer, A. E., Meijer, W. M., Lotz, A. M., Rijlaarsdam, J., Witteman, J., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2019). Vasopressin differentially affects handgrip force of expectant fathers in reaction to own and unknown infant faces. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 13. doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00105