Dr Ellen Klemera, a Senior Research Fellow in Adolescent, Child and Family Health team, has been working at CRIPACC, University of Hertfordshire since 2005. She obtained her PhD in Developmental and Educational Psychology in Tbilisi (Georgia) and MSc in Research Methods in Psychology at Hertfordshire University (2005). Ellen has an expertise in young people’s and children’s health and emotional well-being as she has undertaken research in several projects investigating young people’s health, as ‘Making The News’ ‘Grand parenting research’, ‘Bilingual children’, ‘Improving emotional well-being in primary school children’, ‘Key data on adolescence’. One of the focuses of Ellen’s main research interests falls on Bilingual (bicultural) children’s well-being in UK and Georgia. With Prof. Fiona Brooks Ellen worked on a 'Bilingual Project'-- international collaboration with Georgian Tbilisi State University. The aim of the research was an exploration of the role of bilingualism in family life from the perspective of children and their primary care givers in 2 different cultural contexts. The study was awarded a research grant by British Academy (2007-2008). Since 2009 Ellen works in English team of HBSC project. She is a chair of project’s Family Culture Focus Group. The Family Culture Focus Group investigates adolescent’s family life and its influence on adolescent development, life chances and health behaviours. Ellen works on a qualitative study researching adolescents family experiences, family structure and family dynamics, especially communication with parents.
Ellen has a number of publications and has presented her work at conferences.