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Marina Kotrla Topić is a member of the research group D.E.C.I.D.E.

She is a senior research associate at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health of the J. J. Strossmayer University in Osijek.

She has obtained her PhD in 2012 at the University of Zagreb.

Her research interests include early cognitive development, research of the use of digital media in children in early and middle childhood, and research of the reading from the screens of the digital devices.

In addition to the methodology of survey research, he has extensive experience in conducting qualitative research.

She was a member of the Steering Committee of the COST action “IS1410: The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children (DigiLitEY)” and the COST action “IS1404: Evolution of reading in the age of digitalization (E-READ)”. She was the leader of the project “The connection between the use of digital media and the family literary environment with the language skills of preschool children” (DIGILIT), funded by the Ivo Pilar Institute. She was the leader of the Croatian section of the research “Young children (0-8) and digital technology” (European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, 2015-2017). She was a member of the research team on the projects “Personality Traits and Natural Language” (2004-2006) and “Personality Traits, Natural Language and Cognitive Development” (2007-2011). She is a member of the editorial board of “Education and Technologies Journal”. She is currently an associate on the project “Child Welfare in the Context of the Family (CHILD-WELL)” funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. She is also an associate on the Erasmus + project “ProWell – Protecting the mental well-being of our children during and after public health emergencies – digital training for teachers and educators”.

She is the leader of the Croatian section of the international research “KiDiCoTi: a new study on kids’ digital lives during COVID-19 lock-down”, coordinated by the Joint Research Center.

She is a member of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD), the European Association for Developmental Psychology (EADP), the Croatian Psychological Chamber and the Croatian Psychological Society.

She is the editor of five conference proceedings, and independently or in co-authorship has published 18 scientific papers and four chapters in books.

Marina Kotrla Topić has participated in international conferences with 30 presentations, and in domestic scientific and professional conferences with two presentations. She was a member of the program-organizing committees of four scientific-professional conferences, two of which were international.