dr. (Linda) LP Dekker

Profile

**Linda Dekker is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

In 2019 she successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Tackling Teenage: Psychosexual functioning in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)" at the Erasmus MC - Sophia Children's Hospital. 

Her current teaching responsibilities focus on coordinating a practical on "CBT 1: Assessment" (MSc) and co-coordinating the course "Eating, Sex, and other needs" (BA3), next to supervising clinical and research internships and being a trainer in other clinical practicals (e.g. "Sexuality and Relationship Therapy"). In addition, she provides guest lectures and supervises Local2Global research projects.

Dr. Dekker's current research focuses on two main themes, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sexuality. She has several projects on sexuality in which she investigates correlates to both perpetrator and victimhood and/or investigates sexual development and communication in adolescents. In some projects, she also works with Implicit Association Tests (IATs). In addition, she is working on several projects regarding autism, for example, psychosexual functioning (using the Teen Transition Inventory) and gender issues. She is the founder of the Rotterdam Autism Consortium (R.A.C.), a collaboration between the EUR and clinical partners in the region of Rotterdam. Recently, dr. Dekker together with the R.A.C. acquired a grant from ZonMw to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on families with children with ASD.

Clinical specialties: Diagnostics (specifically ADI-R & ADOS - research reliability achieved); Tackling Teenage training program (certificate), sexuality and relationships.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; sexuality; psychosexual functioning; adolescents; adolescence; developmental psychology.**