She holds a Ph.D. in Human Development (2007) and a M.A. in Educational Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation (2006), both from the University of Maryland in College Park (USA). Her substantive research interests pertain to the role of schools as social contexts for the psychological and social development of adolescents, with special interest in their civic development. Her methodological interests include the consideration of techniques for using large-scale data sets in psychological research, and the measurement of social attitudes. She has published several articles, book chapters, and reports using the 1999 IEA CIVED data.