She has served as a PI on nationally funded grants that examined parenting and child development, and on a research project examining neurobiological factors involved in fathers’ parenting, funded by an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council.
As part of this research project, they conducted a series of randomised controlled trials to test the effects of two pharmacological interventions (oxytocin and vasopressin) and two behavioral interventions (prenatal video feedback using ultrasound, and postnatal use of a soft infant carrier) on hormonal, neural, and behavioral functioning in first-time fathers.
From 1993 until 2022 she was professor at Leiden University (Netherlands) where she worked at the Centre for Child and Family Studies, having also worked at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands) and held a position as a Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK).
Four years later she earned a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Marinus van IJzendoorn, with a thesis titled Het gehechtheidsbiografisch interview.
[3] Bakermans-Kranenburg stayed at Leiden University and started working at the Centre for Child and Family Studies, where she was an assistant professor until 2004.