Curriculum Vitae

Prof. dr Jenny Gierveld

· Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology and Social Gerontology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

· Honorary Fellow, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), The Hague

· Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Arts (KNAW)

Work address:

Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI),
Visiting address:
Lange Houtstraat 19
2511 CV The Hague, the Netherlands

Postal address:
P.O.Box 11650
2502 AR The Hague, the Netherlands
tel 0031 70-3565200
fax 0031 70-3647187
e-mail: gierveld@nidi.nl

Current specialisation: (a) work on loneliness, and (b) the demographic and social aspects of ageing.

Current research: empirical research in the area of living arrangements, social networks, family ties, quality of the partner relationship, well-being and loneliness among older adults. The Nestor/ LASA panel survey and the Netherlands Kinship Panel Survey form the main basis for in-depth investigations of the position of older adults in the Netherlands. In addition, she works together with colleagues from several countries, e.g., as guest researcher at the University of Edmonton (Canada). She is also actively involved in the Gender and Generations Programme of the United Nations Population Activities Unit.

Other current functions:

· Advisor to the European research program Multilinks

· Advisor to the Coalition ‘Erbij’; concerted actions of 14 Dutch National volunteer organizations to alleviate and prevent loneliness

Track record: Jenny Gierveld started studying Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam in 1956. From 1958, she was involved in empirical research, initially as a research assistant in the Department of Sociology. After obtaining a Master’s degree in 1961, and a PhD in 1968 (De Ongehuwden. Een sociologisch onderzoek naar de levensomstandigheden en levensinstelling van ongehuwde mannen en vrouwen / The never-married; living arrangements and attitudes of never-married men and women) she worked as an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Social Research Methodology. In 1978 she became a full professor in that department, specializing in the methodological aspects of survey research, particularly in the field of the conceptualization and measurement of theoretical concepts. In the period 1987 to 2000 she combined her professorship with the position of director of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute in The Hague. In 2000 Jenny Gierveld was asked to become the first ever to fulfill the prestigious position of Permanent Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Between 2000 and her official retirement in 2003, she combined the Permanent Fellowship at NIAS with the position of Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Gerontology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

Furthermore, she has published in the areas of social research methodology, including books and articles about survey research design, questionnaire development, and the measurement of theoretical concepts.

Loneliness scale:

In cooperation with her students, she developed the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale, which is used in empirical research among younger, middle-aged and older adults. The scale is now used in major surveys in more than twenty countries all over the world, ranging from the countries in Western, Southern and Eastern Europe to Canada, Australia and Japan.

See for a program overview J. de Jong Gierveld (1989). 'Program Overview: Personal relationships, social support and loneliness.' Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 6, 197-221 and for the theoretical background of loneliness: J. de Jong Gierveld, T. Van Tilburg & P. A. Dykstra (2006), Loneliness and social isolation. In A. Vangelisti & D. Perlman (Eds), Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships (pp. 485-500). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The scale is available for scientific research programs, under the following conditions: the source of the scale should be mentioned, i.e. De Jong Gierveld & Kamphuis (1985), 'The development of a Rasch-type loneliness scale.' Applied Psychological Measurement, 9, 3, 289-299 as well as the background publication: J. de Jong Gierveld, T. Van Tilburg & P. A. Dykstra (2006), Loneliness and social isolation. In A. Vangelisti & D. Perlman (Eds), Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships (pp. 485-500). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Recently, a short version of the loneliness scale has been developed and tested. See: J. de Jong Gierveld & T. Van Tilburg (2006). A six-item scale for overall, emotional and social loneliness: Confirmatory tests on survey data. Research on Aging: A bimonthly on Aging and the Life Course, 28, 582-598. This 6-item loneliness scale is meant for large-scale surveys.

The manual of the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale is available via:

http://home.fsw.vu.nl/tg.van.tilburg/manual_loneliness_scale_1999.html

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June 2010