Dr. Almar Kok, PhD

Almar Kok  is postdoctoral researcher at the department of psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC/VUmc. 

His PhD project focused “resilience in older adults with a low socio-economic status”, funded by a NWO Vidi-grant to dr. Martijn Huisman. Almar studied Communication Sciences (Bachelor, cum laude) and Sociology (Master, cum laude) at VU University. Almar has searched for factors that explain why some older adults with low socio-economic status manage to age succesfully, despite socio-economic adversity throughout their lives. While employing a broad interdisciplinary approach, the focus was on social and psychological factors, and on the role of self-governance in explaining resilience. In carrying out this research, Almar used quantitative data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) as well as new qualitative data through semi-structured interviews.