معرفی
Hannelore Stegen is an Unpaid employee at the Educational Science Society and Ageing Research Lab within the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and holds an external Researcher position at Thomas More Kempen starting November 2024. Her work centers on aging populations, with particular emphasis on childlessness and loneliness trajectories in later life.
Her educational background includes a 2019 Master's thesis titled Huisje-tuintje-kindje: niet zo vanzelfsprekend? (supervised by Liesbeth De Donder and Sara Dury) and a 2025 PhD thesis Childlessness in Later Life: What’s in a Name? examining cross-sectional data from childless older adults.
Stegen's research investigates how childlessness intersects with loneliness through life course perspectives, exploring coping strategies, social network structures, and urban environmental impacts. She employs mixed-methods approaches including qualitative life-story interviews and large-scale surveys across European contexts. Her fingerprint reveals dominant themes in loneliness (100%), childlessness (35%), coping mechanisms (34%), and life course analysis (33%), with significant contributions to understanding independent living among older Belgians.
Recent publications demonstrate cohesive focus on marginalized aging experiences, particularly how childlessness moderates loneliness patterns and how urban change reshapes social support systems. Her work bridges theoretical gerontology with practical community interventions like Belgium's Caring Neighbourhoods initiative.
Scientific recognition includes:
- FWO Grant for international conference participation (2023)
- GSA-SRPP Travel Stipend (2023)
- German Sociological Association PhD fellowship (2020)
As principal investigator of the FWO-funded project FWOTM1026: How do childless older people experience loneliness? (2020-2024), Stegen secured competitive research funding examining loneliness typologies among childless elders. She actively collaborates across European institutions through projects like the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics study on grandparental caregiving, though no formal student supervision is documented. Current activities include presenting findings at the International Psychogeriatric Association and developing community-based interventions through VUB's Ageing Research Lab.
Her laboratory work centers on the Ageing Research Lab at VUB, where she co-created three public datasets including qualitative life-story interviews with childless older adults. This infrastructure supports ongoing analysis of urban aging dynamics through collaborations with Thomas More Kempen and international partners across the European aging research network.
