Pien Bos obtained a MA degree in Pedagogic Sciences - with a specialization in adoption – (1993) and a MA degree in Cultural Anthropology - with a specialization in women, gender and development – (1996) at the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands). Between 1995 and 2000 she worked as a co-ordinator for the Association Worldchildren, an NGO for child-welfare and inter-country adoption in The Hague. In 2000 she joined the Dutch Foundation for Adoption Services where she co-ordinated the Roots Information Centre, a centre for adoptees with a desire for information about their background and/or biological family. She taught compulsory educational courses for prospective adoptive parents.

In 2001 Pien Bos became a PhD researcher at the Department of Social Science Research Methodology at the Radboud University Nijmegen. This research was focused on the decision-making processes of unmarried mothers in India with regard to relinquishment or acceptance of their children and was funded bij NWO-Wotro & WODC. She received her PhD degree with distinction in January 2008 and became assistant professor at the Radboud University.

In 2011 she completed a Post-Doc research project (ZonMW) on decision-making processes of mothers with regard to relinquishment of a child in the Netherlands.

In December 2011 she became assistant professor at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands. At the same time she started research on mothers in Vietnam who relinquished children for adoption. She did this study in cooperation with Dr. Fenneke Reysoo (The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva), ISS Geneva and UNICEF Vietnam.

In 2015 she added the theme 'ageing well and meaning in life' to her research-focus She did research among social isolated and/or lonely senior citizens in Rotterdam and simultaneously started research on ageing well and meaning in life in rural areas.