معرفی
Kathleen Beullens is a Professor and Research Director at the Leuven School for Mass Communication Research (KU Leuven, Belgium). Her work focuses on media psychology, particularly the longitudinal effects of media use (e.g., social media, television) on children’s and adolescents’ psychosocial well-being, health outcomes, and risk behaviors like alcohol and tobacco use.
- PhD in Social Sciences (2009)
- University Teaching Qualification (2020)
Her research integrates media effects theory with health communication, examining how digital platforms shape identity development, peer dynamics, and parental mediation. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and secured significant grants (e.g., FWO postdoctoral fellowships, EU projects) to study alcohol-related social media content and its behavioral impacts.
Recent publications highlight her expertise in social media’s role in adolescent alcohol consumption, influencer marketing, and pandemic discourse analysis. She also supervises doctoral dissertations on topics such as reciprocal associations between social media use and smoking initiation.
- 2021 Replication Award – European Conference of Media Psychology
- 2018 Best Article Award – Alpro Foundation
- 2010 Top Paper Award – International Communication Association (ICA)
- Multiple FWO and KU Leuven postdoctoral fellowships
Beullens teaches in the bachelor’s and master’s programs in Communication Sciences and Business Communication at KU Leuven. She leads grants exceeding €350,000, including projects like #Smokefree, which tests social media-based interventions to reduce adolescent smoking.
