Florence, Tuscany, Italy
I hold degrees in Computer Science (BSc), Psychology (BSc), Management (MSc) and Media & Communications (PhD). I work at the intersection of child rights and digital technology and have many years of experience in designing, implementing and managing multi-national evidence generation projects. Currently, I lead the research programme on Children & Digital at UNICEF, focusing on contemporary and future challenges and opportunities for children through digital technology. I have directly managed large-scale research projects in more than 30 countries, and continuously support the organization and national UNICEF offices with research implementation, training, knowledge management and capacity building.
I lead the research programme on Children & Digital Technologies at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in the Office of Research. I coordinate the multistakeholder cross-national research project Global Kids Online and the work of 17 UNICEF Country Offices and our international academic partners. I also lead the Disrupting Harm project from UNICEF's side, which will generate new evidence on child sexual exploitation and abuse in 23 countries around the world between 2019-2025. In addition to coordinating these projects, I work on developing new research methodologies, project implementation, researcher training, and assisting our global outreach and advocacy initiatives. I also support (and learn from!) research teams on the ground during fieldwork and training in low-middle income settings.
I hold a postdoctoral research position at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. My research focuses on behavioral addictions, with a special interest in excessive use of technology and related cognitive, behavioral and health outcomes. I take an interdisciplinary approach to behavioral addictions and its treatment by integrating social science and medical research methods. Between 2015-2017 I coordinated a project at the Stockholm Centre for Dependency Disorders (Beroendecentrum Stockholm) which investigated co-morbidity between substance addiction and behavioral addiction in a clinical population of substance abusers. More information available here: http://ki.se/en/people/danika1
My PhD focused on understanding people's motivations for excessive internet use and how this behaviour can be modeled as a function of their life context and psychological features. Methodologically, I used cognitive walkthroughs for survey design and developed a number of different surveys aimed to capture forms of online behavior. I analyzed survey data via multivariate statistics. I am particularly proficient in survey design, scale construction, regression modeling and factor analytical methods and have extensive experience working in SPSS.
I was part of the management group for the pan-European research project EU Kids Online, funded by the European Commission’s Safer Internet Programme. I assisted in the coordination of 28 individual research teams, one in each European country. I coordinated submission of deliverables, synthesized research reports, organized conferences and workshops, drafted press-releases and supported dissemination of research findings and policy initiatives.
IT Consultant providing computer support and knowledge management for the pharmaceutical sector.
During a research project at Oxford University I explored user acquisition and retention on contemporary and emerging online platforms (e.g., web, virtual environments). I did initial work on how to analyze and improve customer attitudes and experiences in these contexts.