Dr M.J.W. Gesthuizen (Maurice)
Assistant professor - Radboud Social Cultural Research
Assistant professor - Sociology
Maurice Gesthuizen investigates the causes of economic marginalization (for example having a low education, experiencing economic disadvantage) and its consequences for social participation and health. Using quantitative data material, he researches these topics both within the Netherlands and across borders. For example, he could show that negative cognitive and social selection processes ensure that the group of low-educated people today is qualitatively different from a few decades ago, and that in countries where these negative selection processes were more pronounced, the economic and social marginalization of low-educated people was more severe (for example compared to higher educated people). In other research, he was able to provide empirical evidence showing that in more generous welfare states, economic marginalization is less strongly associated with social isolation and poor health than in less generous welfare states. He currently focuses on reciprocal causal relationships between poverty and mental health, exploring the importance of personal, economic, and social coping resources in reducing the impact of poverty on the experience of mental health problems.
Maurice Gesthuizen studied sociology at Radboud University Nijmegen (doctorate in 1999), after which he obtained his PhD from the same department in 2004. After an appointment at the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP), where he studied labor market and poverty-related topics, he returned to the sociology department in 2007. In his work, Maurice always strives to understand the people behind the figures and statistical analyses.