Lesley Verhofstadt

Lesley Verhofstadt is a Professor at Ghent University in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, specifically within the Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology. She maintains an active research program focusing on intimate relationships, social support, empathic accuracy, and family functioning in various contexts including cancer and trauma. Her work spans multiple disciplines including social psychology, clinical psychology, and family studies.

Verhofstadt's research interests center on understanding interpersonal dynamics within couples and families. She investigates how emotional processes, particularly empathic accuracy and emotion regulation, influence relationship quality and satisfaction. Her work examines these dynamics across various contexts including childhood cancer, sexual violence, and chronic illness. She has made significant contributions to understanding how couples navigate conflict, provide support, and maintain intimacy through challenging circumstances. Her research integrates both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to provide comprehensive insights into relationship processes.

Her recent publications (2024-2025) demonstrate continued focus on empathic accuracy in romantic relationships, emotion regulation in couples, and the impact of traumatic experiences on relationship dynamics. She has expanded her research to include global perspectives, as evidenced by multi-national studies on pandemic stress and parental burnout across 42 countries. Her work shows a progression from foundational studies on marital conflict and support to more complex investigations of relationship processes in diverse contexts including medical trauma and sexual violence.

As an academic mentor, Verhofstadt has supervised numerous PhD students to completion, including Liesbet Berlamont (2023), Marieke Van Schoors (2021), Mojca Filipič Sterle (2019), Celine Hinnekens and Gaëlle Vanhee (2017), and Inge Devoldre (2012). She maintains extensive collaborations with researchers at Ghent University, particularly with Ann Buysse (22 co-authored publications), Celine Hinnekens (18), Gilbert Lemmens (18), Liesbet Goubert (17), and Marieke Van Schoors (16).

Her research program addresses critical questions about how individuals and families cope with significant stressors including childhood cancer, sexual violence, and chronic illness. She examines both the micro-level processes within relationships (such as empathic accuracy during conflict) and broader systemic factors influencing family adaptation. Her work has important implications for clinical practice, particularly in couple and family therapy approaches.