Mgr. Mária Lesičková (1997) is a PhD student at the Medical Education Centre, Faculty of Medicine, PJ Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia, pursuing doctoral studies in Public Health. Her dissertation focuses on adolescents’ mental health and health-related behaviors, with particular emphasis on their experiences with gender-polarized content in online environments.
She earned her Master’s degree (2022) and Bachelor’s degree (2019) in Psychology at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Her Master’s thesis examined university students’ perceptions of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in Slovakia using a qualitative approach, while her Bachelor’s thesis investigated the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at helping secondary school students distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy news.
During her studies, she gained academic experience as a research and teaching assistant at Comenius University in Bratislava and at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. She is currently involved in the National Project DiTEdu (NCDTV) as part of the Prevention and Digital Well-being Team.
Beyond academia, she gained practical experience in youth development by volunteering at a secondary school in Tanzania and later working in Slovakia as a trainer of preventive and experiential programmes for secondary schools, fostering social skills and positive classroom environments.
Email: maria.lesickova@upjs.sk
Publications:
COHERENT 