European Society on Family Relations (ESFR)

ESFR is an interdisciplinary scientific association for European research on families and family relations.
Its purpose is to serve as a network, to support and to link family research as well as to exchange its results.

It has been established as a federation of family researchers and of family research institutes within Europe in the first place, but ESFR also welcomes researchers and institutes outside of Europe as affiliates.
The organisation was founded in Nijmegen, in The Netherlands, in late 2002

  1. The European Society on Family Relations (ESFR) represents a multidisciplinary, non-profit organization of family researchers.
  2. The Society aims to promote excellence in the scientific study of family relations in context by bringing together European family researchers.
  3. The ESFR is devoted to the advancement of theoretical and empirically-oriented research at both the basic and applied levels.
  4. In addition, the ESFR aims at fostering excellence in the training of family researchers at the institutional and individual levels.
  5. The ESFR encourages scientific cooperation between family scientists from European countries and provides a forum for the international exchange of scientific knowledge concerning the family, including dissemination of the current state of the art knowledge in the field.
  6. Moreover, it will serve as a platform for expert knowledge concerning family relations including the interface between research and policy on the local, national, and international levels. This information will be available for dissemination to individual families, corporate organizations and government agencies

Isabelle Albert

President

University of Luxembourg

Isabelle Albert (psychologist) is a research scientist at the University of Luxembourg in the Institute for Lifespan Development, Family and Culture, Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences. Her main research interests are in the field of (cross-)cultural, life-span developmental and family psychology. She has made major contributions to the areas of transgenerational family relations and transmission of values, cultural diversity, identity and belonging in the context of migration and ageing. She also holds a certificate in Systemic Family Counselling

Dominik Schoebi

Past President

University of Fribourg, Switzerland

DS is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Fribourg, and the director of the Institute of Family Research and Counseling. His work focuses on emotion and interaction dynamics in intimate relationships, and on physical and psychological violence in families.

Rita Gouveia

Regular Board Member

University of Lisbon, Portugal

Margarida Henriques

Regular Board Member

University of Porto, Portugal

Angela Palmer

Regular Board Member

DCEDIY and Institute for Public Policy, UCD, Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Angela Palmer is a research consultant in the area of child welfare and protection in Ireland and an adjunct research fellow at the Geary Institute for Public  Policy, University College Dublin.

Jorge Gato

President-Elect and Secretary

University of Porto, Portugal

Jorge Gato is a Researcher in the Centre for Psychology at University of Porto, with an interest in the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals in different contexts, such as school, family, and work. He is a Systemic Family Therapist and an advocate for LGBTQ+ human rights

Uwe Uhlendorff

Treasurer

TU Dortmund University, Germany

Uwe Uhlendorff is professor for social pedagogy and social work at the Faculty of Education and Psychology/Dortmund University. His research is focused on families in need and social services based on qualitative and quantitative methods.

Katharina Herlofson

Regular Board member

Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Norway

Katharina Herlofson (sociologist) is a researcher at NOVA, Oslo Metropolitan University. She is co-responsible for the Norwegian Life course, Ageing and Generations Study (NorLAG), and her main research interests include gender and intergenerational family relationships in ageing societies.

Joanna Płonka

Student Member

University of Adam Mickiewicz, Poznan, Poland

Joanna Płonka is a psychologist, psychotherapist and a PhD student at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland), with an interest in normative and non-normative sexual development and child sexual abuse. She is in the process of becoming a certified Psychodynamic Psychotherapist. 

Kimmo Jokinen

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Kimmo Jokinen is a Professor of Family Studies in the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His areas of expertise are changing family forms, family transitions, families and well-being, and sociological family theories.

Dominik Schoebi

University of Fribourg, Switzerland

DS is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Fribourg, and the director of the Institute of Family Research and Counseling. His work focuses on emotion and interaction dynamics in intimate relationships, and on physical and psychological violence in families.

Allan Westerling

Roskilde University, Denmark

Allan Westerling is an associate professor in Social Psychology at Roskilde University, Denmark. His area of research includes fatherhood and parenthood and generally the issues and troubles of everyday family life. He works with mixed methods and takes a problem oriented, interdisciplinary approach

Tina Miller

Oxford Brookes University, UK

Tina Miller is a Professor of Sociology at Oxford Brookes University who specialises in policy relevant research, impact and teaching with an expertise in family lives and theorizations/practises of gender. She specialises in micro- focused, longitudinal research on transitional periods in individual and family contexts. This includes in relation to motherhood and fatherhood transitions, parenthood, paid work and caring, constructions of gender, identities and ethnicities and equity in reproductive health service provision and experiences. These areas are underpinned by an expertise in qualitative (longitudinal) research methods, systematic reviews and research ethics.

Daniela Barni

University of Bergamo, Italy

Daniela Barni is a psychologist and an Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Italy. She is a member of the Family Studies and Research University Centre, Catholic University of Milan, Italy. Her main research interests are in family relationships, with particular attention to intergenerational relations and value transmission processes.

Gerardo Meil

Autonoma University, Madrid, Spain

Gerardo Meil is professor in Sociology at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. His research and publications focus on Family Sociology, Gender Violence,  and Work-Family Balance Policy and its impact on family dynamics. For a full vita see his web-page at http://www.uam.es/gerardo.meil

Lenka Šulová

Charles University Prague, Czech Republic

Prof. PhDr. Lenka Šulová, CSc.  works at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University. In her work, she focuses on an individual’s psychological development in society and especially on partner and family relationships.  She was a principal researcher of an international study project focused on early child development, the specifics of the maternal and paternal role, and the importance of the family environment concerning the institution’s impact on the child. She is interested in the child’s speech development, the paternal and maternal speech specifics, and the child’s speech development in a bilingual environment. She has worked for many years as a psychologist focusing on the issues of children in foster care. She has developed a methodology for teachers on how to strengthen the legal consciousness of the child. She has her own counseling practice. She has authored and co-authored a number of psychological publications. She is a member of many professional psychological societies in the Czech Republic and abroad, regularly participates in international professional meetings and research activities

Katharina Herlofson

Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Norway

Katharina Herlofson (sociologist) is a researcher at NOVA, Oslo Metropolitan University. She is co-responsible for the Norwegian Life course, Ageing and Generations Study (NorLAG), and her main research interests include gender and intergenerational family relationships in ageing societies.

Uwe Uhlendorff

TU Dortmund University, Germany

Uwe Uhlendorff is professor for social pedagogy and social work at the Faculty of Education and Psychology/Dortmund University. His research is focused on families in need and social services based on qualitative and quantitative methods.

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