Gitte Demaret

Biography

Gitte Demaret obtained her Master's degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in children and adolescents at KU Leuven in 2023. During her studies, she delved into the realm of early childhood development, focusing her master's thesis on shared picture book reading in preschool settings as an activity to foster early mathematical skills in young children.

After graduation, she started her professional journey as a psychologist at CLB. It was during this time that she became acutely aware of the alarming rise in childhood obesity. Driven by her longstanding interest in healthy living, she aimed to make a direct contribution in addressing this issue. This determination led her to pursue scientific research to deepen her understanding and contribute to the field of health promotion.

Motivated by her experiences, Gitte started working as a PhD student on an interdisciplinary PhD project (BOF-project) at CEPEC (faculty psw) and KLOP (faculty ppw). The aim of this research project is to develop a comprehensive understanding of how parental decisions related to their young children’s food are driven by the parent influencers they follow on social media, and whether and how communication strategies can steer them into healthy directions. Insights from this project will be shared with local policymakers, potentially paving the way for the development of guidelines in the field of health promotion.