I am a PhD candidate working for the SWIPE project at the Research Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University Psychiatric Clinics (UPK) in Basel, in the research group of Prof. Dr. Dr. Christina Stadler. Furthermore, I am affiliated at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, in the Digital Lives research group led by Prof. Dr. Lara Wolfers.

Before focusing on digital media research, I worked for several years in clinical and transcultural mental health. My earlier work spanned psychosocial distress and social support among somatic inpatients and the development of a culturally adapted skills-training programme aimed at reducing distress among youth refugees. This period gave me valuable research experience that laid an important foundation for my academic work and continues to inform my perspective today.

I am now pursuing my PhD within the SNSF-funded longitudinal SWIPE follow-up study on children's screen media exposure in Switzerland. In my research I aim to go beyond traditional indicators such as screen time to examine how, when, and with what content young children engage with digital media and how these contextual and content-related aspects relate to their socio-emotional, language, and motor development. To capture media use as it unfolds in everyday life, SWIPE draws on a comprehensive longitudinal multi-method design that combines objective and passive measures, ecological momentary, and laboratory assessments.

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Lena Zarifoglu

Publications