Dr. Daphne van de Bongardt is a sociologist and pedagogical scientist, and an associate professor at the Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her area of expertise is relational and sexual development, education and health, with a strong focus on youth (adolescents and young adults) and different social contexts (i.e., family, peers, partners, school, (social) media, social norms, and culture). Her research is characterized by a mixed-methods approach including: (intensive) longitudinal questionnaires, (life history) interviews, (dyadic) video-observations, meta-analysis/systematic review, and speed-dating. 

In 2017, she received an individual Veni-grant from NWO for her research project “Lovely sex or sexy love?” which was recently finalized. In 2019, she received a consortium grant from ZonMw for a PhD project on the effectiveness of psychosexual health programs for boys and young men ("Move Up!"). She also regularly engages in media and broad audience activities (e.g., Universiteit van Nederland, TEDx, Lowlands Science en Studium Generale). In 2021, she founded the Erasmus Love Lab, a unique interdisciplinary lab for scientific research on intimate relationships, love, and sexuality.