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Dr. Yekaterina Chzhen

Associate Professor (Sociology)
3 COLLEGE GREEN
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Yekaterina Chzhen

Associate Professor (Sociology)
3 COLLEGE GREEN

 chzheny@tcd.ie

 3531896 2701


Dr Yekaterina (Kat) Chzhen came to Trinity from the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence in September 2019, where she was leading a comparative study on inequalities in childhood in higher income countries (producing one of UNICEF's flagship publications, the Innocenti Report Card). Prior to coming to Innocenti in 2013, Kat spent two years as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Quantitative Methods in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Oxford and a Non-Stipendiary Research Fellow at Nuffield College. She received her PhD in Social Policy from the University of York in 2011. She became a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2024. Kat works on poverty and inequality across the life course, focusing on material well-being, education, health and life satisfaction. She specialises in quantitative methods, mixed methods, longitudinal research and cross-country comparative research. Interested in international collaborations and PhD supervision on inequalities income, education and health.
  child well-being   educational inequality   income inequality   POVERTY   SOCIAL POLICY
Project Title
 Global study of young carers: causes and consequences
From
2026
To
2027
Summary
Funding Agency
Enterprise Ireland
Programme
Coordination Support - ERC version
Project Type
ERC Support
Project Title
 Consequences of young caregiving: short-term and longer-term health and educational outcomes
From
2026
To
2031
Summary
This mixed-methods doctoral research project examines the short-to-long term consequences of young caregiving on health, education, employment, and wellbeing over the life-course. It will compare varying policies and supports for young carers across high-income countries and their effectiveness of reducing disadvantages young carers experience. In addition to analyses of survey data, interviews will be conducted with young carers and key stakeholders in Ireland to ground the findings of the analyses in lived experiences.
Funding Agency
Trinity College Dublin
Programme
TRDA Joint-Student PI
Project Title
 An investigation into the lives and support requirements of young carers in Ireland for the development of national professional guidelines
From
2026
To
2027
Summary
The project aims to create a standard definition of a young carer for the purpose of this research; identify the support needs of young carers within the remit of the Children and Young People"s Services Committees (CYPSC); and develop good practice guidelines to support professionals working with young carers
Funding Agency
Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCDE)
Programme
Research to better understand the circumstances and needs of young carers in Ireland
Project Type
Consortium services contract
Project Title
 Beyond household income: A new rights-based approach to child deprivation measurement in Ireland
From
September 2025
To
September 2029
Summary
This mixed methods PhD project will develop and evaluate a child-centred and child rights informed list of deprivation indicators that can be used alongside existing household poverty and deprivation measures to monitor poverty and inform policy. It will elicit children"s views on the necessities of life for children in contemporary Ireland and compare these with the views of adults. It will then derive a list of childhood necessities and compare this with child-related information available from nationally representative Irish surveys.
Funding Agency
Pobal
Programme
Co-funding a PhD project
Project Title
 Lessons from the pandemic: Socio-economic inequalities in children' education and mental health
From
2022
To
2023
Summary
Funding Agency
Entreprise Ireland

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Details Date
Member of the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS) Child and Adolescent Development Working Group 2023-present
Management board member, Trinity Research in Childhood Centre (TRiCC) 2023-present
Member of the organising committee of the 2026 annual conference of the European Consortium for Sociological Research 2024-2026
Co-chair and founding member of the Interdisciplinary Child Wellbeing Network (ICWBN) 2021-2024
Co-chair of the organising committee for the 2022 European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA) conference. 2020-2022
Member of an Expert Working Group of the national Creating Our Future campaign 2021-2022
Member of the Independent Jury of Experts for the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) Award for Social Cohesion 2026-2028
Academic staff representative to the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Carers Network 2025-present
Member of the Scientific and Impact Advisory Board of "Children First: Nordic policies and children's well-being" (University of Turku project, funded by NordForsk) 2023-2027
Member of the Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) Research Advisory Committee, SVP Ireland 2022-present
Member of International Advisory Board for the COORDINATE (COhort cOmmunity Research and Development Infrastructure Network for Access Throughout Europe) H2020 project. 2021-2025
Details Date From Date To
Irish Young Carer Research Network 2026
European Association for Population Studies 2023
International Sociological Association (ISA), Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility 2021
Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network 2021
Children's Research Network 2020 2021
Nuffield College Associate Membership 2013 2015
Nuffield College Non-Stipendiary Research Fellowship 2011 2013
Rodolfo Pezzi and Yekaterina Chzhen, Social inequalities in Irish children"s cognitive and mental health during secondary school transition: the role of the home learning environment, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 17, (3), 2026, p346 - 377, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Child poverty and pro-elderly bias in social spending in, editor(s)Maria Vaalavuo, Kenneth Nelson, Kati Kuitto , Social sustainability in ageing welfare states, Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025, pp59 - 77, [Yekaterina Chzhen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI
Rooting Net Zero in social thinking in, editor(s)Carolyn Jane Snell, Lucie Middlemiss, Kelli Kennedy, Emily Morrison, Yekaterina Chzhen, Samanthi Theminimulle, Tania Carregha , Just climate futures, Policy Press, 2025, [Lucie Middlemiss, Yekaterina Chzhen, Carolyn Snell], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Mengxuan Li and Yekaterina Chzhen, Immigrant optimism in Ireland: Parental expectations of children"s educational attainment, Social Stratification and Mobility, 98, (101066), 2025, p1 - 10, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Symonds, J. E., Chzhen, Y., Kaye, N., Dominy, J., Campbell, C., Sykes, C., Bastug, S. I., Fiasconaro, S., & Heydari Barardehi, I., A Metareview of Research on Educational Inequality and Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Education Sciences, 15, (6), 2025, 1, p17 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Mengxuan Li and Yekaterina Chzhen, Insecure maternal employment and children's behaviour difficulties: Evidence from the longitudinal study of Australian children, Social Science & Medicine, 354, (117077), 2024, p1 - 10, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Mengxuan Li and Yekaterina Chzhen, Home learning environment or parenting stress? Examining the links between poverty and child development in Ireland, European Societies, 26, (4), 2024, p911 - 951, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Lucie Middlemiss; Carolyn Snell; Tania Carregha; Samanthi Theminimulle; Emily Morrison; Yekaterina Chzhen; Kelli Kennedy; Anne Owen, Place-based and people-centred: Principles for a socially inclusive Net Zero transition, Geo: Geography and Environment, 11, (2), 2024, p1 - 16, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Yekaterina Chzhen and Jonathan Bradshaw, The two-child limit and child poverty in the United Kingdom, International Journal of Social Welfare, 34, (1), 2024, p1 - 15, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Yekaterina Chzhen and Julia Leesch, Why does school socio-economic composition matter to adolescents" academic performance? Role of classroom climate and school resources, British Educational Research Journal, 49, (6), 2023, p1291 - 1311, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Julia Mikolai, Yekaterina Chzhen and Christine Garrington, Covid-19 and children's well-being, 2022, Working Paper, PUBLISHED
Gromada, Anna; Rees, Gwyther; Chzhen, Yekaterina, Worlds of Influence: Understanding what shapes child well-being in rich countries, Florence: Italy, 2020, Report, PUBLISHED
Yekaterina Chzhen; Gwyther Rees; Anna Gromada, Are the world's richest countries family friendly? Policy in the OECD and EU, Florence, Unicef Office of Research - Innocenti, 2019, Report, PUBLISHED
Yekaterina Chzhen, Anna Gromada and Gwyther Rees, An unfair start: Inequality in children's education in rich countries, Florence , UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, 2018, Report, PUBLISHED
Yekaterina Chzhen, Zlata Bruckauf and Emilia Toczydlowska, Sustainable Development Goal 1.2: Multidimensional child poverty in the European Union, Innocenti Working Paper , 2017-07, Florence , 2017, Report, PUBLISHED
Lisa Hjelm, Lucia Ferrone, Sudhanshu Handa and Yekaterina Chzhen, Comparing Approaches to the Measurement of Multidimensional Child Poverty, Innocenti Working Paper , 2016-19, Florence, 2016, Report, PUBLISHED
Lucia Ferrone and Yekaterina Chzhen, Child poverty in Armenia: National multiple overlapping deprivation analysis, Innocenti Working Paper, 2016-24, 2016, Report, PUBLISHED
Zlata Bruckauf and Yekaterina Chzhen, Education for all? Measuring inequality of educational outcomes among 15-year-olds across 39 industrialised countries, Innocenti Working Paper, 2016-08, 2016, 2016, Report, PUBLISHED
Yekaterina Chzhen, Zlata Bruckauf, Kwok Ng, Daria Pavlova, Torbjorn Torsheim, Margarida Gaspar de Matos, Inequalities in adolescent health and life satisfaction: Evidence from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study, Innocenti Working Paper, 2016-09, Florence, 2016, Report, PUBLISHED
Yekaterina Chzhen, Irene Moor, William Pickett, Emilia Toczydlowska, Gonneke Stevens, Family affluence and inequality in adolescent health and life satisfaction: Evidence from the HBSC study 2002-2014, Innocenti Working Paper, 2016-10, Florence, 2016, Report, PUBLISHED

  


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Award Date
Nominated for the Award for Excellence in Research Student Supervision 2025
Elected to Fellowship, Trinity College Dublin 2024
Non-Stipendiary Research Fellowship, Nuffield College 2011-2013
University of York Teaching Studentship and Overseas Research Students Award 2007-2010
International Master in Social Policy Analysis Full Scholarship (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) 2004-2005
Visiting Scholar (Columbia University) 2004
Open Society Foundations graduate full scholarship (Central European University) 2003-2004
Open Society Foundations undergraduate full scholarship (American University in Bulgaria) 1999-2003