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Marina Merkaš, PhD, Associate Professor
Leader of the D.E.C.I.D.E. project and the research group

Marina Merkaš, leader of the project and the research group holds a PhD in family relationships and children’s social competence (2012) from the University of Zagreb.

Her areas of interest, work and research are in the field of developmental psychology, more specifically individual and contextual determinants of children’s development, especially the effects of parenting and family dynamics on children’s development and the effects of digital technology on child development. So far, she has published 19 papers in journals, one paper in conference proceedings, one book chapter, two monographs and two scientific research reports, independently or in co-authorship.

She edited the book of abstracts from one conference and has participated with 43 presentations at the national and international conferences and was the moderator of two symposiums at the conferences.

She has participated in the implementation of 11 projects funded from various sources (e.g., UNICEF, Ministry of Science and Education, Croatian Science Foundation), and she was a leader of one research project. She educated herself by attending five summer and methodological schools and workshops. She did a part of her dissertation at the Ghent University and completed the first part of education for cognitive-behavioral therapist.

She was a mentor for 15 graduate theses and taught courses at the Faculty of Croatian Studies and the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb. She teaches developmental psychology at the Catholic University of Croatia (HKS). She was the president of the Program Committee of the 1st International Scientific Conference of the Department of Psychology at the Catholic University of Croatia and a member of two program committees of conferences and is currently a member of two program committees of conferences.

She is a member of domestic and international associations (HPK, HPD, EARA, EADP, representative of the Republic of Croatia in EADP-ERU), reviews papers for domestic and foreign journals (Child Indicators Research, Developmental Psychology, Društvena istraživanja, RADOVI Zavoda za znanstveni rad Varaždin, Psihologijske teme, European Journal of Mental Health, SAGE Open, International Research in Education, Revija za socijalnu politiku i Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja) and is a member of the editorial board of two journals (International Research in Education and International Journal of Psychiatry and Mental Health).

She was, among other things, a member of the Quality Committee and the ECTS coordinator of the Psychology Department at her University and is currently a member of the Senate of the Catholic University of Croatia.

She has worked at the 16th Gymnasium in Zagreb, the Clinic for Psychiatry at the University Hospital Center Rijeka, and the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar in Zagreb.

Her papers have been cited 180 times in WoS (h-index 3), 195 in Scopus (h-index 3), 572 times in Google Scholar (h-index 7, i10-index 5), and 302 times in Research Gate.