Julie Schou Nicolajsen’s research examines youth well-being, social communities, and loneliness, with a particular focus on upper secondary education as a key social context. Her PhD project investigates how students’ social relationships evolve over time and how their positions within peer networks relate to experiences of belonging, well-being, and loneliness.
Using a longitudinal design, the project contributes to understanding how formal institutional settings shape the development of informal peer communities, and how these dynamics may foster both inclusion and exclusion. A central focus is the relationship between social connectedness and well-being among young people.
In addition, she has experience analysing young people’s perspectives on education, including well-being, educational trajectories, and transitions, as well as evaluation studies related to inclusion and school development.
She primarily applies qualitative methods, including individual and focus group interviews, and works with longitudinal designs and qualitative longitudinal data. She also has experience with mixed methods approaches and literature reviews.
Julie Schou Nicolajsen holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Copenhagen, with a specialization in welfare, inequality and mobility. She has been affiliated with VIVE since 2016 in roles as student assistant, research assistant, and analysist/senior analysist, contributing to research and evaluation projects within the field of children, youth, and education.
