Title

Between a rock and a soft place: developmental research and the child advocacy process

UMMS Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry

Publication Date

2005-10-20

Document Type

Article

Subjects

Biomedical Research; Child; Child Psychology; Data Collection; Humans; *Patient Advocacy; Research Design

Disciplines

Psychiatry

Abstract

Developmental researchers face a perilous path as they set out to perform research with child advocacy potential. We offer our observations regarding how researchers can navigate the path between science (the "rock") and advocacy (the "soft place"), based on our recent experience as directors of the MacArthur Juvenile Adjudicative Competence Study. Scientific research can be extraordinarily effective in the child advocacy process, but science and advocacy are very different endeavors. Scientific credibility demands impartiality, whereas advocacy is never impartial. For psychological scientists to be effective in conducting research relevant to child advocacy, it is important to maintain our identity as scientists and resist any efforts on the part of others to label this work as advocacy.

DOI of Published Version

10.1207/s15374424jccp3404_4

Source

J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2005 Dec;34(4):619-27. Link to article on publisher's site

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed

PubMed ID

16232059

Link to Full Text

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