I am a clinical psychologist and senior researcher at the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, RKBU Vest. My research interests center on mental health and resilience in high-risk groups and the link between mental health and school functioning.
I have a PhD from the University of Bergen where I investigated mental health and resilience among internationally adopted adolescents. I am currently focusing on how school functioning is influenced by mental health problems and the protective factors that can underlie positive development in a school setting. In my post doc project ‘School dropout – risk and protection’, I investigated the associations between depressive symptoms and school dropout, and which factors can prevent dropout among adolescents experiencing symptoms of depression. I am also interested in school absence, both in my research and in projects where I collaborate with schools and municipalities. I am currently part of a national project group piloting the intervention Back2School aimed at children and adolescents with problematic school absence. I am also involved in a public health project with Bjørnafjorden municipality where one of the main goals is to increase attendance and prevent exclusion.
As a researcher, I have experience using large, epidemiological surveys linked to register data, in particular the youth@hordaland-survey and the national educational database. I am currently the project manager of ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences - Families, Resilience, and Children's Outcomes’, a project financed by the Norwegian Research Council. I also lead the work package concerning unaccompanied refugee minors in the project ‘PACT – Pathways to Active Citizenship’.
