Dr. Sophie Mayen

Biography

Sophie Mayen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Università della Svizzera italiana, in the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, affiliated with the Institute of Public Health (IPH). She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Vienna, where her doctoral research titled 'Growing Digital' examined adolescents’ digital media use, well-being, and academic performance employing experience sampling longitudinal modeling. In March 2025, she will continue as a postdoctoral researcher at IPH, working on the SNSF-funded AWARE and GIOCO projects. Her work integrates media psychology, public health, and health communication with a methodological focus on micro-longitudinal and longitudinal designs. She manages the AWARE project, which examines how exposure to mental illness content relates to adolescents’ well-being and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The GIOCO project studies children's and adolescents’ play in analog, digital, and hybrid contexts, focusing on the perceptions of play in relation to psychological needs over time.

Research Interests

Experience