Research team

The Family Ties project is a collaboration between the University of Groningen and the University of Curaçao dr. Moises da Costa Gomez.

The researchers in the team are:

“After teaching Caribbean youngsters at Saint Martin, I became curious about experiences with - and possible effects of growing up without one’s biological father. To better understand these experiences and possible effects, this project includes three different cultural contexts: Curaçaoan youngsters on Curaçao, and Dutch and Curaçaoan youngsters in the Netherlands.”

“Research into the consequences of growing up without a father for boys and girls is very relevant for social workers, policymakers, social scientists and also young people who grow up without a father themselves. I’m delighted that we got the opportunity to carry out this father absent project and I am looking forward to work together with my collaborators and the young people.”

“We only know very little about Curaçaoan-Dutch youngsters and how they grow up. In a diverse society, it is important to know how all our youths are doing.”

“Studying the interplay of one's social environment and their development requires that we acknowledge the role of the broader context. I am enthusiastic that we can do this in this project and very much look forward to learning from the Curaçaoan research partners and participants!”

“By means of thorough research I aspire to contribute to our knowledge about possible effects of an ‘absent father’ for adolescents. There are a lot of opinions about this topic in society, mostly negative. What we also do not know, is what role others (aunts, grandfathers and -mothers) play when a father is absent, like we see a lot in Curaçaoan families.”

Our project benefits from scientific and societal advisors, for example:

• prof. dr. A.P. (Bram) Buunk, University of Groningen; Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), The Hague; Universidad Católica de Santa María, Perú