Loes Meeussen
Biographic Data
| ID | 763491 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Loes Meeussen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Loes |
| FAMILY NAME | Meeussen |
| SIGNATURE | MEEUSSEN L |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4340-4788 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 146 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Prioritizing Work or Family? Investigating Women’s and Men’s Work-Family Decisions
Despite societal change, women and men still differ in the extent to which they prioritize work and family. Women more often reduce work hours or adjust careers to prioritize family needs, whereas men more often work overtime or decline family responsibilities to advance their careers. This study tested two possible explanations, that women and men differ in (1) how they perceive the costs and benefits of prioritizing work versus family; and (2) …
Did Descriptive and Prescriptive Norms About Gender Equality at Home Change During the Covid-19 Pandemic? A Cross-National Investigation
Using data from 15 countries, this article investigates whether descriptive and prescriptive gender norms concerning housework and child care (domestic work) changed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a total of 8,343 participants ( M = 19.95, SD = 1.68) from two comparable student samples suggest that descriptive norms about unpaid domestic work have been affected by the pandemic, with individuals seeing mothers’ relative to fa…
The gender gap in the care economy is larger in highly developed countries: Sociocultural explanations for paradoxical findings
Despite the growing demand for care economy employees (e.g., nurses, teachers, and social workers), men remain underrepresented in these careers. While economically developed countries support more equal rights for women and men, their labor markets are highly gender segregated (Charles, 1992, 2003). We conducted a focused investigation of this paradoxical pattern in the care economy, testing whether gender gaps in care economy career interest ar…
Better Be Multicultural or Colorblind? How Teachers' Approach to Diversity During Covid‐19 School Closures Predicts Adolescents' Class Engagement, School Belonging and Health Beyond General Teacher Su…
Ethnic gaps in school achievement, belonging and health exacerbated during the COVID‐19 school closures. Building on increasing evidence that school diversity approaches impact these gaps, this paper investigates the effects of pupils' perceived teacher diversity approaches during COVID‐19 school closures, hypothesising that multicultural approaches that recognise and value cultural diversity have positive effects while colorblind approaches that…
The role of identity leadership in promoting athletes' mental health: A cross‐cultural study
Identity leadership is the process through which leaders create, advance, represent, and embed a sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’ (i.e., social identities) within the teams they lead. This paper extends the existing sports psychology literature by investigating the relationship between identity leadership and athletes' mental health, as mediated by team identification and social support. Additionally, the study explores the generalisability of these relati…
Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental‐leave policies and…
Social background concealment among first-generation students: The role of social belonging and academic achievement concerns
Although higher education has become more accessible to people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the transition to university is more difficult for first- compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research showed that social identity processes are key to understand differences between first- and continuing-generation students’ experiences at university. In the present paper, we argue that social background identity concealment may …
Daily Coping With Social Identity Threat in Outgroup-Dominated Contexts: Self-Group Distancing Among Female Soldiers
We examine the degree to which women in a male-dominated field cope with daily experiences of social identity threat by distancing themselves from other women. A daily experience-sampling study among female soldiers ( N = 345 data points nested in 61 participants) showed women to self-group distance more on days in which they experienced more identity threat. This was mediated by daily concerns about belonging but not achievement in the military,…
The impact of poor work-life balance and unshared home responsibilities on work-gender identity integration
The degree to which gender and organizational social identities are perceived as compatible has been proven a key factor in promoting creative performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment of female workers. But what are the factors that help them develop a high level of Gender-Work Identity Integration (GWII)? Previous studies have focused on organizational aspects (i.e., gender stereotype threat, perceived respect in the organizat…
Parenting with a smile: Display rules, regulatory effort, and parental burnout
Positive parenting prescriptions prevailing in Western countries encourage parents to regulate their emotions and, more specifically, to show more positive emotion to their children and control negative emotions while parenting. The beneficial effect of this practice on child development has been much documented, but its possible costs for parents have been much less researched. The current study borrowed the well-known emotional labor framework …
Negotiating inclusion: Revealing the dynamic interplay between individual and group inclusion goals
We aim to improve our understanding of how perceptions of social inclusion come about, unfold over time, and relate to individual and group outcomes. To do so, we draw on the MARGINI model, which offers a novel theoretical account of inclusion by delineating that inclusion is the result of a dynamic interplay between the individual's motivation to be included in the group (individual inclusion goal) and the group's willingness to include the indi…
How to Foster Male Engagement in Traditionally Female Communal Roles and Occupations: Insights from Research on Gender Norms and Precarious Manhood
While women are increasingly entering traditionally masculine, agentic occupations and roles, there has been less of a shift in the opposite direction: men moving into traditionally feminine, communal occupations and roles. This paper outlines the negative consequences of men's low communal engagement, and how this inhibits various benefits for men themselves, for the women and children around them, and for society as a whole. We review how socio…
A social identity perspective on the social-class achievement gap: Academic and social adjustment in the transition to university
First-generation students show lower academic performance at university compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research established the value in taking a social identity perspective on this social-class achievement gap, and showed that the gap can partly be explained by lower compatibility between social background and university identities that first- compared to continuing-generation students experience. The present paper aimed to…
Can School Diversity Policies Reduce Belonging and Achievement Gaps Between Minority and Majority Youth? Multiculturalism, Colorblindness, and Assimilationism Assessed
European societies and schools face the challenge of accommodating immigrant minorities from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. In view of significant belonging and achievement gaps between minority and majority groups in school, we examine which diversity approaches are communicated by actual school policies and which approaches predict smaller ethnic gaps in student outcomes over time. To derive diversity approaches, we content-analyzed…
Feeling Pressure to Be a Perfect Mother Relates to Parental Burnout and Career Ambitions
Background & aims. Intensive mothering norms prescribe women to be perfect mothers. Recent research has shown that women’s experiences of pressure towards perfect parenting are related to higher levels of guilt and stress. The current paper follows up on this research with two aims: First, we examine how mothers regulate pressure towards perfect mothering affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally, and how such regulation may relate to parental b…
Looking for a Family Man? Norms for Men Are Toppling in Heterosexual Relationships
Minority acculturation and peer rejection: Costs of acculturation misfit with peer‐group norms
How do minority adolescents' personal acculturation preferences and peer norms of acculturation affect their social inclusion in school? Turkish and Moroccan minority adolescents (N = 681) reported their preferences for heritage culture maintenance, mainstream culture adoption, and their experiences of peer rejection as a key indicator of adjustment problems. Additionally, we aggregated peer acculturation norms of maintenance and adoption within …
Managing diversity: How leaders’ multiculturalism and colorblindness affect work group functioning
Workforces are becoming increasingly diverse and leaders face the challenge of managing their groups to minimize costs and maximize benefits of diversity. This paper investigates how leaders’ multiculturalism and colorblindness affect cultural minority and majority members’ experiences of connectedness (feeling accepted or distancing from group) and relationship conflict in their group. We collected data from 29 culturally diverse student work gr…
When values (do not) converge: Cultural diversity and value convergence in work groups
Culturally diverse work groups do not always reach their full potential compared with less diverse groups. As shared values facilitate group functioning, we examined whether constructing shared values among group members is constrained by high degrees of cultural diversity. Following 33 real‐life work groups, we investigated how members influenced each other's achievement and relational values over time. Although low and high diversity groups did…
They are all the same”: Low perceived typicality and outgroup disapproval as buffers of intergroup threat in mass media
Can School Diversity Policies Reduce Belonging and Achievement Gaps Between Minority and Majority Youth? Multiculturalism, Colorblindness, and Assimilationism Assessed
European societies and schools face the challenge of accommodating immigrant minorities from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. In view of significant belonging and achievement gaps between minority and majority groups in school, we examine which diversity approaches are communicated by actual school policies and which approaches predict smaller ethnic gaps in student outcomes over time. To derive diversity approaches, we content-analyzed…
Minority acculturation and peer rejection: Costs of acculturation misfit with peer‐group norms
How do minority adolescents' personal acculturation preferences and peer norms of acculturation affect their social inclusion in school? Turkish and Moroccan minority adolescents (N = 681) reported their preferences for heritage culture maintenance, mainstream culture adoption, and their experiences of peer rejection as a key indicator of adjustment problems. Additionally, we aggregated peer acculturation norms of maintenance and adoption within …
Managing diversity: How leaders’ multiculturalism and colorblindness affect work group functioning
Workforces are becoming increasingly diverse and leaders face the challenge of managing their groups to minimize costs and maximize benefits of diversity. This paper investigates how leaders’ multiculturalism and colorblindness affect cultural minority and majority members’ experiences of connectedness (feeling accepted or distancing from group) and relationship conflict in their group. We collected data from 29 culturally diverse student work gr…
How to Foster Male Engagement in Traditionally Female Communal Roles and Occupations: Insights from Research on Gender Norms and Precarious Manhood
While women are increasingly entering traditionally masculine, agentic occupations and roles, there has been less of a shift in the opposite direction: men moving into traditionally feminine, communal occupations and roles. This paper outlines the negative consequences of men's low communal engagement, and how this inhibits various benefits for men themselves, for the women and children around them, and for society as a whole. We review how socio…
A social identity perspective on the social-class achievement gap: Academic and social adjustment in the transition to university
First-generation students show lower academic performance at university compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research established the value in taking a social identity perspective on this social-class achievement gap, and showed that the gap can partly be explained by lower compatibility between social background and university identities that first- compared to continuing-generation students experience. The present paper aimed to…
Parenting with a smile: Display rules, regulatory effort, and parental burnout
Positive parenting prescriptions prevailing in Western countries encourage parents to regulate their emotions and, more specifically, to show more positive emotion to their children and control negative emotions while parenting. The beneficial effect of this practice on child development has been much documented, but its possible costs for parents have been much less researched. The current study borrowed the well-known emotional labor framework …
Looking for a Family Man? Norms for Men Are Toppling in Heterosexual Relationships
They are all the same”: Low perceived typicality and outgroup disapproval as buffers of intergroup threat in mass media
Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental‐leave policies and…
Negotiating inclusion: Revealing the dynamic interplay between individual and group inclusion goals
We aim to improve our understanding of how perceptions of social inclusion come about, unfold over time, and relate to individual and group outcomes. To do so, we draw on the MARGINI model, which offers a novel theoretical account of inclusion by delineating that inclusion is the result of a dynamic interplay between the individual's motivation to be included in the group (individual inclusion goal) and the group's willingness to include the indi…
When values (do not) converge: Cultural diversity and value convergence in work groups
Culturally diverse work groups do not always reach their full potential compared with less diverse groups. As shared values facilitate group functioning, we examined whether constructing shared values among group members is constrained by high degrees of cultural diversity. Following 33 real‐life work groups, we investigated how members influenced each other's achievement and relational values over time. Although low and high diversity groups did…
Better Be Multicultural or Colorblind? How Teachers' Approach to Diversity During Covid‐19 School Closures Predicts Adolescents' Class Engagement, School Belonging and Health Beyond General Teacher Su…
Ethnic gaps in school achievement, belonging and health exacerbated during the COVID‐19 school closures. Building on increasing evidence that school diversity approaches impact these gaps, this paper investigates the effects of pupils' perceived teacher diversity approaches during COVID‐19 school closures, hypothesising that multicultural approaches that recognise and value cultural diversity have positive effects while colorblind approaches that…
The role of identity leadership in promoting athletes' mental health: A cross‐cultural study
Identity leadership is the process through which leaders create, advance, represent, and embed a sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’ (i.e., social identities) within the teams they lead. This paper extends the existing sports psychology literature by investigating the relationship between identity leadership and athletes' mental health, as mediated by team identification and social support. Additionally, the study explores the generalisability of these relati…
Social background concealment among first-generation students: The role of social belonging and academic achievement concerns
Although higher education has become more accessible to people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the transition to university is more difficult for first- compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research showed that social identity processes are key to understand differences between first- and continuing-generation students’ experiences at university. In the present paper, we argue that social background identity concealment may …
They are all the same”: Low perceived typicality and outgroup disapproval as buffers of intergroup threat in mass media
Managing diversity: How leaders’ multiculturalism and colorblindness affect work group functioning
Workforces are becoming increasingly diverse and leaders face the challenge of managing their groups to minimize costs and maximize benefits of diversity. This paper investigates how leaders’ multiculturalism and colorblindness affect cultural minority and majority members’ experiences of connectedness (feeling accepted or distancing from group) and relationship conflict in their group. We collected data from 29 culturally diverse student work gr…
When values (do not) converge: Cultural diversity and value convergence in work groups
Culturally diverse work groups do not always reach their full potential compared with less diverse groups. As shared values facilitate group functioning, we examined whether constructing shared values among group members is constrained by high degrees of cultural diversity. Following 33 real‐life work groups, we investigated how members influenced each other's achievement and relational values over time. Although low and high diversity groups did…
Minority acculturation and peer rejection: Costs of acculturation misfit with peer‐group norms
How do minority adolescents' personal acculturation preferences and peer norms of acculturation affect their social inclusion in school? Turkish and Moroccan minority adolescents (N = 681) reported their preferences for heritage culture maintenance, mainstream culture adoption, and their experiences of peer rejection as a key indicator of adjustment problems. Additionally, we aggregated peer acculturation norms of maintenance and adoption within …
Feeling Pressure to Be a Perfect Mother Relates to Parental Burnout and Career Ambitions
Background & aims. Intensive mothering norms prescribe women to be perfect mothers. Recent research has shown that women’s experiences of pressure towards perfect parenting are related to higher levels of guilt and stress. The current paper follows up on this research with two aims: First, we examine how mothers regulate pressure towards perfect mothering affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally, and how such regulation may relate to parental b…
Looking for a Family Man? Norms for Men Are Toppling in Heterosexual Relationships
How to Foster Male Engagement in Traditionally Female Communal Roles and Occupations: Insights from Research on Gender Norms and Precarious Manhood
While women are increasingly entering traditionally masculine, agentic occupations and roles, there has been less of a shift in the opposite direction: men moving into traditionally feminine, communal occupations and roles. This paper outlines the negative consequences of men's low communal engagement, and how this inhibits various benefits for men themselves, for the women and children around them, and for society as a whole. We review how socio…
A social identity perspective on the social-class achievement gap: Academic and social adjustment in the transition to university
First-generation students show lower academic performance at university compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research established the value in taking a social identity perspective on this social-class achievement gap, and showed that the gap can partly be explained by lower compatibility between social background and university identities that first- compared to continuing-generation students experience. The present paper aimed to…
Can School Diversity Policies Reduce Belonging and Achievement Gaps Between Minority and Majority Youth? Multiculturalism, Colorblindness, and Assimilationism Assessed
European societies and schools face the challenge of accommodating immigrant minorities from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. In view of significant belonging and achievement gaps between minority and majority groups in school, we examine which diversity approaches are communicated by actual school policies and which approaches predict smaller ethnic gaps in student outcomes over time. To derive diversity approaches, we content-analyzed…
Negotiating inclusion: Revealing the dynamic interplay between individual and group inclusion goals
We aim to improve our understanding of how perceptions of social inclusion come about, unfold over time, and relate to individual and group outcomes. To do so, we draw on the MARGINI model, which offers a novel theoretical account of inclusion by delineating that inclusion is the result of a dynamic interplay between the individual's motivation to be included in the group (individual inclusion goal) and the group's willingness to include the indi…
Daily Coping With Social Identity Threat in Outgroup-Dominated Contexts: Self-Group Distancing Among Female Soldiers
We examine the degree to which women in a male-dominated field cope with daily experiences of social identity threat by distancing themselves from other women. A daily experience-sampling study among female soldiers ( N = 345 data points nested in 61 participants) showed women to self-group distance more on days in which they experienced more identity threat. This was mediated by daily concerns about belonging but not achievement in the military,…
The impact of poor work-life balance and unshared home responsibilities on work-gender identity integration
The degree to which gender and organizational social identities are perceived as compatible has been proven a key factor in promoting creative performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment of female workers. But what are the factors that help them develop a high level of Gender-Work Identity Integration (GWII)? Previous studies have focused on organizational aspects (i.e., gender stereotype threat, perceived respect in the organizat…
Parenting with a smile: Display rules, regulatory effort, and parental burnout
Positive parenting prescriptions prevailing in Western countries encourage parents to regulate their emotions and, more specifically, to show more positive emotion to their children and control negative emotions while parenting. The beneficial effect of this practice on child development has been much documented, but its possible costs for parents have been much less researched. The current study borrowed the well-known emotional labor framework …
Social background concealment among first-generation students: The role of social belonging and academic achievement concerns
Although higher education has become more accessible to people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the transition to university is more difficult for first- compared to continuing-generation students. Previous research showed that social identity processes are key to understand differences between first- and continuing-generation students’ experiences at university. In the present paper, we argue that social background identity concealment may …
Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental‐leave policies and…
Did Descriptive and Prescriptive Norms About Gender Equality at Home Change During the Covid-19 Pandemic? A Cross-National Investigation
Using data from 15 countries, this article investigates whether descriptive and prescriptive gender norms concerning housework and child care (domestic work) changed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a total of 8,343 participants ( M = 19.95, SD = 1.68) from two comparable student samples suggest that descriptive norms about unpaid domestic work have been affected by the pandemic, with individuals seeing mothers’ relative to fa…
The gender gap in the care economy is larger in highly developed countries: Sociocultural explanations for paradoxical findings
Despite the growing demand for care economy employees (e.g., nurses, teachers, and social workers), men remain underrepresented in these careers. While economically developed countries support more equal rights for women and men, their labor markets are highly gender segregated (Charles, 1992, 2003). We conducted a focused investigation of this paradoxical pattern in the care economy, testing whether gender gaps in care economy career interest ar…
Better Be Multicultural or Colorblind? How Teachers' Approach to Diversity During Covid‐19 School Closures Predicts Adolescents' Class Engagement, School Belonging and Health Beyond General Teacher Su…
Ethnic gaps in school achievement, belonging and health exacerbated during the COVID‐19 school closures. Building on increasing evidence that school diversity approaches impact these gaps, this paper investigates the effects of pupils' perceived teacher diversity approaches during COVID‐19 school closures, hypothesising that multicultural approaches that recognise and value cultural diversity have positive effects while colorblind approaches that…
The role of identity leadership in promoting athletes' mental health: A cross‐cultural study
Identity leadership is the process through which leaders create, advance, represent, and embed a sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’ (i.e., social identities) within the teams they lead. This paper extends the existing sports psychology literature by investigating the relationship between identity leadership and athletes' mental health, as mediated by team identification and social support. Additionally, the study explores the generalisability of these relati…
Prioritizing Work or Family? Investigating Women’s and Men’s Work-Family Decisions
Despite societal change, women and men still differ in the extent to which they prioritize work and family. Women more often reduce work hours or adjust careers to prioritize family needs, whereas men more often work overtime or decline family responsibilities to advance their careers. This study tested two possible explanations, that women and men differ in (1) how they perceive the costs and benefits of prioritizing work versus family; and (2) …
Psychology (18 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Work-Family Balance Challenges (8 works) · Gender Diversity and Inequality (7 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (7 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Clinical Psychology (4 works)