Abstract
As well as conducting research in developmental science, baby and child labs face additional pressures. They must demonstrate public engagement and research impact, while also recruiting enough participants to conduct research, something that can be particularly challenging with infants and young children. These different pressures compete for time and resources, leaving researchers struggling to engage effectively in all such activities. Here we describe a low-cost, easy-to-implement, enjoyable and effective means of simultaneously addressing the challenges of recruitment, public engagement and research impact. It started with a process of listening and knowledge exchange with relevant local stakeholders to discern the interests and needs of the local infant community (including families, health professionals and businesses). This process led to the establishment of a fortnightly educational and support group for pregnant women and mothers of young infants, which met in the lab. This group combined peer discussion, presentations on developmental psychology, and ‘taster’ activities for mothers and infants from local businesses. Data collected from questionnaires from the first and final sessions indicated significant improvements in participants’ understanding of relevant concepts in developmental psychology, and showed that participants found this information helpful and reported using it at home. Participants also reported feeling more socially connected and more confident as mothers as a result of the group. The group also served to boost research participation, with 94 per cent of participants subsequently taking part in lab research or signing up to be contacted about future research. This approach can be employed by baby and child labs looking for ways to effectively and enjoyably promote public engagement and research impact, and for those looking to establish strong relationships with local stakeholders. The success of this strategy demonstrates that the aims of recruitment, public engagement and research impact need not be competing pressures on researchers’ time, but can be mutually supporting aspects of the research process.
Highlights
There are increasing calls to shift scientists’ attitudes towards public engagement and science communication from seeing it as an unpopular and niche activity to seeing it as an important aspect of academic life (Besley et al, 2018; Ecklund et al, 2012)
We suggest that for baby and child labs, and potentially for other research groups too, the pressure of recruitment can serve as a barrier to conducting public engagement activities
We wished to establish participants’ interests regarding the educational component of the group, and their prior knowledge of terms in developmental psychology, especially those associated with the theme of shared experience
Summary
There are increasing calls to shift scientists’ attitudes towards public engagement and science communication from seeing it as an unpopular and niche activity to seeing it as an important aspect of academic life (Besley et al, 2018; Ecklund et al, 2012). Public engagement and research impact are not interchangeable terms, but they are closely connected: effective public engagement is often a means of demonstrating research impact. The value of such activities is increasingly becoming institutionally recognized and, in some cases, mandated. Grant proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF), a key funder of scientific research in the United States, are required to include plans for ensuring ‘broader impacts’, which involves demonstrating how the research will provide benefit to society beyond academia, and includes the requirement to conduct public engagement activities (Besley et al, 2015)
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