Multidisciplinary communication science research with a focus on health and nutrition. Current activities; How can communication interventions promote compliance to behavioral measures to prevent viral infection and spreading? How is the meaning of food preference and food healthiness constructed in everyday life? Attempting to acquire a complete, holistic view of these matters, I deploy mixed methods research, i.e., both quantitative and qualitative research methods. 

Expertise and research fields

• Health communication
• Health behaviour
• Health and nutrition

Research methods

• Quantitative methods such as survey questionnaires, experiments, implicit association tests
• Qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups, discursive psychology, conversation analysis
• Systematic literature reviews

Current research projects

• Postdoc project on pandemic preparedness: development and testing of communication interventions to enhance compliance with behavioral measures to prevent infection and spreading of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

• Van der Heijden, A., Te Molder, H., Huma, B., & Jager, G. (2023). Healthy food talk as action in everyday mealtime conversations of families with a low socioeconomic position. SSM – Qualitative Research in Health, 3, 100253.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2023.100253
• Van der Heijden, A., Te Molder, H., Huma, B., & Jager, G. (2022). To like or not to like: Negotiating food assessments of children from families with a low socioeconomic position. Appetite, 170, 105853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105853 
• Van der Heijden, A., Te Molder, H., Jager, G., & Mulder, B. C. (2021). Healthy eating beliefs and the meaning of food in populations with a low socioeconomic position: A scoping review. Appetite, 161, 105135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105135
• Van der Heijden, A., Te Molder, H., De Graaf, C., & Jager, G. (2020). Healthy is (not) tasty? Implicit and explicit associations between food healthiness and tastiness in primary school-aged children and parents with a lower socioeconomic position. Food Quality and Preference, 84, 103939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.103939
• Van der Heijden, A., Mulder, B. C., Poortvliet, P. M., & Van Vliet, A. J. H. (2017).  Social-cognitive determinants of the tick check: a cross-sectional study on self-protective behavior in combatting Lyme  disease. BMC Public Health, 17, 900. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4908-1
• Onrust, S. A., Van der Heijden, A., Zschämisch, A. L., & Speetjens, P. A. M. (2017). Effectiveness of Fresh Start: a randomized study of a school-based program to retain a negative attitude toward substance use in secondary school freshmen. Substance Use & Misuse, 53, 921 – 930. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2017.1385082