Researcher

Karolien Adriaens

Care and Well-being - People and Well-being

Karolien Adriaens (PhD) is a researcher in the People and Well-being research group, research line Safeguarding Sport & Society.  As a clinical psychologist she is working on  research projects on harassment and abuse in sports and child maltreatment

karolien.adriaens@thomasmore.be
+32 3 432 40 12
linkedin.com/karolienadriaens

About Karolien

Karolien Adriaens holds a Bachelor of Applied Psychology (Thomas More, 2011), a Master of Clinical Psychology (KU Leuven, 2014) and a Doctor of Psychology (KU Leuven, 2020). In 2015 and 2016, she worked as a supervisor in mobile teams for people with long-term mental vulnerability. She also worked as a clinical psychologist in the Tender Activation Care project (collaboration between VDAB and psychiatry) where she provided psychosocial counselling to people with mental/medical vulnerability during their trajectory towards the labour market. Between 2016 and 2021, Karolien worked as a PhD student and postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven. Her research focused on investigating the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in the context of smoking cessation. Through experimental and mainly practice-based research, Karolien showed that e-cigarettes are an effective aid, and that when smokers quit smoking using an e-cigarette, they do at least as well as smokers using traditional smoking aids (e.g. Nicotine patches).

Since October 2021, Karolien has been working as a researcher in the People and Well-being Research Group, research line 'Safeguarding Sport & Society'. She mainly conducts practice-based research on bystander behaviour and the prevention of harassment and abuse against children. Karolien takes on the day-to-day management of the Erasmus+ Project Safe Sport Allies, which is coordinated by the research line. In Safe Sport Allies, researchers, sports actors and victim organisations develop an intervention in which trainers, club administrators, parents and athletes are trained to recognise, correctly assess and adequately respond to signals of cross-border behaviour. Karolien is also involved in other projects in the prevention of interpersonal violence (Safe Para Sport Allies, SAFE-sport, WWYD, ...).

Finally, Karolien supervises Applied Psychology students in their undergraduate thesis as well as external research trainees.

Publications

Articles in internationally reviewed scientific journals

  • Adriaens, K., Verhelle, H., Brain, J., Haerens, L., Brouwers, O., & Vertommen, T. Safe Sport Allies Bystander Training Increases Youth Sport Participants’ and Coaches’ Positive Bystander Behaviors. [Manuscript in preparation]. Safeguarding Sport & Society, Thomas More University.

  • Adriaens, K., Verhelle, H., Peters, G.-J. Y., Haerens, L., & Vertommen, T. (2024). The Safe Sport Allies Bystander Training: Developing a Multi-Layered Program for Youth Sport Participants and their Coaches to Prevent Harassment and Abuse in Local Sport Clubs. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1389280

  • Verhelle, H., Vertommen, T., Adriaens, K., Parent, S., Haerens, L., & van de Veerdonk, W. (2024). What would you do? Developing, implementing and evaluating a coach bystander intervention to prevent sexual violence in youth sports clubs. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2024.2331212

  • Adriaens, K., Belmans, E., Van Gucht, D., & Baeyens, F. (2021). Electronic cigarettes in standard smoking cessation treatment by tobacco counselors in Flanders: E-cigarette users show similar if not higher quit rates as those using commonly recommended smoking cessation aids. Harm Reduction Journal, 18(28). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-021-00475-7

  • Adriaens, K., Van Gucht, D., Van Lommel, S., & Baeyens, F. (2021). Vaping during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Belgium. BMC Public Health, 21(1613). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11637-4
  • Adriaens, K., Van Gucht, D., & Baeyens, F. (2018). About one in five novice vapers buying their first e-cigarette in a vape shop are smoking abstinent after six months. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(9). doi:10.3390/ijerph15091886
  • Adriaens, K., Van Gucht, D., Declerk, P., & Baeyens, F. (2014). Effectiveness of the electronic cigarette: An eight-week Flemish study with six-month follow-up on smoking reduction, craving and experienced benefits and complaints. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11(11), 11220-11248. doi:10.3390/ijerph111111220

PhD thesis

Online pitch