School of Social and Political Science

Background

Zain is a social epidemiologist specialising in advanced statistical and mixed methods research on childhood adversity, inequality and interpersonal violence across the life course. She completed both her Master of Public Health and PhD in Quantitative Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh, where her doctoral research examined the relationship between early childhood deprivation and adolescent victimisation using nationally representative longitudinal data from the United Kingdom.

Her work focuses on the science of measurement, with expertise in psychometrics and the development of rigorous, context-sensitive approaches to complex social phenomena, including adverse childhood experiences, violence typologies and life course trajectories.

At the University of Edinburgh, she has held a range of academic roles, including Research Associate, Research Fellow and Teaching Fellow in Mathematics for Social Science. She is also a former Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne. Her career reflects a sustained contribution to the University’s social science and public health research community, spanning her development as a student, researcher and educator.

Alongside her academic work, she has extensive experience in international development and public policy. She previously worked with UN Women in the Arab States Sub-Regional Office on programmes addressing violence against women, and later with UNICEF in Jordan supporting monitoring and evaluation for programmes serving refugee and vulnerable children and families. She has since provided research and policy consultancy to UNICEF, the Scottish Government and other national and international organisations. Her work has contributed to the development of Scotland’s Domestic Homicide and Suicide Review model.

She is currently Senior Researcher in Violence Prevention at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, where her research focuses on adverse childhood experiences, violence and health inequalities using linked survey and administrative data. Her work is driven by a commitment to open science and the use of robust, policy-relevant evidence to improve the lives of children, families and communities.