Mara Brendgen obtained her Doctorate in Psychology and Education at the Freie Universität Berlin in 1996. She then undertook her postdoctoral studies in the Groupe de recherche sur l'inadaptation psychosociale chez l'enfant (GRIP) at the University of Montreal and the Centre for Research in Human Development at Concordia University. In 2000, she obtained a research position at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. In 2001, she accepted a faculty position at the Department of Psychology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She was awarded tenure in 2005 and promoted to Full Professor in 2011.

Dr. Brendgen’s research interests focus on the interplay between individual, family-related, and peer-related factors in the etiology of aggression and victimization among children and adolescents. In addition to the risk factors associated with aggression and victimization, she investigates their mid- and long-term effects on children’s developmental adjustment, including mental and physical health as well as academic adjustment. Of further interest are potential moderating factors (personal characteristics, friendships, sibling relationships, relationship with parents and teachers, etc.), which may protect children from the risk factors or consequences of aggression and victimization. Another particularly important issue in this context concerns the transactional mechanisms between children’s genetic liabilities and environmental influences (parents, teachers, peers) that explain the links between aggression or victimization, on the one hand, and the child's adjustment, on the other hand. Her research is financed by various national and provincial funding agencies, such as the CIHR, SSHRC, and the FQRSC.

• Senior Research Scholar, 2008-2012 ($244 743$), Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec
• Junior 2 Research Scholar, 2004-2008 ($205,693), Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec
• Scholarship Award for 2001-2005 ($160,000), Conseil québécois de la recherche sociale (CQRS) (declined in May 2001 after having accepted the position of professor at UQAM)
• Summa Cum Laude for PhD thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, 1996