About

I am a PhD candidate in Psychology at the University of Maribor. Prior to this, I earned Master's degrees in Social and Health Psychology and in Clinical Psychology from Utrecht University, where I worked under the supervision of Angelos Krypotos.

I am currently completing my dissertation titled Development of an Explanatory Model of Selected Indicators of Youth Mental Health in a Cross-Country and Temporal Perspective. My thesis focuses on the analysis of youth mental health trends over time and across countries. In particular, I investigate mood and eating disorders, suicide rates, and subjective well-being—such as life satisfaction and happiness measures—among adolescents and young adults. A key part of my work involves examining how these outcomes are shaped by broader economic conditions (e.g., income inequality, material standards, economic freedom), and social influences (e.g., school pressures, parenting styles, and cultural orientations like individualism and collectivism, the spread of social media and mental health literacy) at both the country and individual levels.

My broader research interests are clinical and social psychology, happiness research, social epidemiology and global mental health. I am especially interested in how shifting cultural values and economic trends are contributing to rising levels of school and parental pressure, as well as the growing prevalence of perfectionism among young people.