Esther Bernasco is a PhD student in the Youth & Family department. Her research focuses on peer relations and internalizing problems in adolescence. This research is part of the INTRANSITION project, which focuses on adolescents’ development of identity and autonomy around school transitions.

She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and her research master’s degree in Developmental Psychology (cum laude) at Leiden University, where she studied social exclusion and neural correlates of prosocial and aggressive behavior in early adolescence.