Julius März is a PhD-candidate at the department of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry at Erasmus MC Rotterdam. He obtained his Psychology Research Master´s degree at the University of Amsterdam, with a specialization in Clinical and Social Psychology. The focus of his current research is the usage of Ecological Momentary Assessment data to evaluate and improve interventions that target the negative effects of daily life stress on mental health. Further research interests include the rise of science skepticism, as well as early detection of affective disorders and psychosis.

“How do daily affect dynamics in offspring of parents with a mood disorder compare to affect dynamics in healthy control offspring?”

Children of parents with mood disorders like depression or bipolar disorder are more likely to develop mood disorders themselves. This can be due to both a genetic risk and the potentially stressful environment of growing up with a parent who has a mood disorder. Meanwhile, not much is known about the daily emotional experiences of these adolescents, i.e. their positive and negative affect, compared to those of adolescents with healthy parents. To address this, we study the daily affect of adolescents in this high-risk population. Specifically, we will investigate affect intensity, which is the average affect level over several days, and affect variability, which indicates how much their affect fluctuates over time. This could deliver further insights into the parental influences on the emotional experiences of children and adolescents, as well as into potential early warning signs of mood disorders.

PhD student,
Erasmus MC

Julius is part of the Junior Think Tank