Mariola Gremmen
Mariola Gremmen a graduate student at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Broadly my interests are youth and adolescence, academic achievement, academic motivation, social relationships and networks, peer status, prosocial behaviors, antisocial and risk-taking behaviors, and bullying and victimization. I was a visiting scholar in the Adolescent Transitions Lab during the Fall of 2016 (September and October). I worked on a paper concerning adolescents’ same-behavior and cross-behavior friendship selection and influence processes with regard to their academic achievement and risk behaviors (i.e., delinquency and alcohol use).
Paulina Guzmán
Paulina Guzmán is a teacher and researcher at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile and the principal investigator of the “Longitudinal Study of Teachers’ Well-being and School Engagement” project. I defended my dissertation titled “The Passion for Teaching: Exploring the Determinants of Teacher Work Engagement” in September 2024. As part of my research, I have worked closely with educators to understand the dynamic interplay between burnout, emotions, self-efficacy, and teaching practices in different educational settings. My research is conducted within the Coexistence Laboratory at the Institute for Socioemotional Well-being (IBEM). I collaborate with a multidisciplinary team to explore factors contributing to a supportive school climate and teacher well-being. My interests extend to examining how educational leadership shapes these dynamics and how school climate and social interactions influence teachers’ engagement and mental health. I am passionate about using my findings to inform interventions that foster positive school environments and enhance teacher engagement.
Sofie Lorijn
Sofie Lorijn is a postdoctoral researcher at the Lectorate of Addiction Sciences and Forensic Care in the Netherlands. I defended my dissertation on peer relationships in the transition from primary to secondary education in July 2024. As part of my PhD, I was a visiting scholar in the Adolescent Transitions Lab for 3.5 months, writing a paper on behavioral disengagement in school transitions. Broadly, my research interests are youth and adolescence, well-being, social networks, school transitions, and academic outcomes.
Ashwin Rambaran
Ashwin Rambaran is a postdoctoral research fellow at Interdisciplinary Social Science (ISS) and European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (Ercomer), Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and School of Education (SoE) and Combined Program in Education and Psychology (CPEP) at the University of Michigan, USA. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Groningen and the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS) in the Netherlands on the topic of school bullying. His work concentrates on the interplay between individual development and peer networks and applies social network methods to understand this. He was awarded a Marie Skludowska-Curie Grant (H2020) aimed to understand intergroup contact and social and academic development in university learning communities. This project is a collaboration between the University of Michigan and Utrecht University. From 2023 onwards, he will be joining the Sociology Department at Radboud University in the Netherlands as a faculty member. His research appears in Child Development, Social Networks, and Journal of Educational Psychology.
