Carol L. McAllister

Parents, Practitioners, and Researchers: Community-Based Participatory Research With Early Head Start

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach to research and evaluation that is receiving increased attention in the field of public health. Our report discusses the application of this approach to research and evaluation with an Early Head Start (EHS) program in Pittsburgh, Pa. Our primary purpose is to illustrate the key elements that contributed to effective collaboration among researchers, EHS practitioners, and parents of EHS children in the conduct of the study. The focus is not on research findings but on research process. Our goal is to make the practices of CBPR visible and explicit so they can be analyzed, further developed, and effectively applied to a range of public health issues in a diversity of community contexts.

The Strengths-Based Practices Inventory: A Tool for Measuring Strengths-Based Service Delivery in Early Childhood and Family Support Programs

Understanding the outcomes of strengths-based programs requires a better understanding of the extent to which programs actually provide services that are consistent with this model. To this end, we have developed the Strengths-Based Practices Inventory (SBPI). Data collected from two studies of parents participating in either an early childhood prevention program or family support program indicated that the SBPI has 4 related factors: (a) identification and use of strengths, (b) cultural competency, (c) interpersonal sensitivity and knowledge, and (d) relationship-supportive behavior. The SBPI is sensitive to differences between programs in the extent of strengths-based practice and is related to some expected outcomes, including family empowerment and social support.

Infant mental health and family support: Contributions of Early Head Start to an integrated model for community‐based early childhood programs

This paper analyzes the experiences of an Early Head Start (EHS) program in adopting and implementing an infant mental health (IMH) approach in its work with community families. Through qualitative methods (participant observation, qualitative interviews, and case studies), we examined the strategies used, and the challenges encountered, by program staff as they applied IMH principles in their home-visiting interventions with families whose lives involve significant economic, social, and psychological stressors. Our study identified four elements crucial to an effective IMH initiative: (1) teamwork, especially the use of transdisciplinary teams to review family cases, (2) reflective supervision, (3) development of an integrated and empathic understanding of the childs needs and the parents challenges in meeting those needs, and (4) a dynamic ecological understanding of children, families, and communities in which psychosocial and socioeconomic factors are viewed as mutually important and interactive. We argue that each of these elements both builds on and enhances long-standing dimensions of this EHS programs family support approach, creating an innovative and integrated model of IMH and family support that could prove of value in many community-based programs serving children and families whose emotional health is affected by everyday experiences of economic and social inequality.

Qualitative Cancer Genetic Counseling Research, Part II: Findings from a Exploratory Ethnographic Study in a Cancer Clinic

This is a report of the preliminary findings of a brief exploratory ethnographic study in a cancer diagnosis and treatment clinic. The main research purpose was to explore the meaning of cancer and cancer treatment to patients themselves and to their relatives and close friends. The methods are described in detail in a paper focusing on the experiences of being a novice ethnographer (Peters et al. (2001) J Genet Counsel 10(2):133–150.). The preliminary results of this exploratory fieldwork indicate that the experience of attending a cancer treatment clinic for evaluation and/or treatment is a complex social, emotional as well as medical process for patients and families. Themes with relevance to genetic counselors that emerged from this early observation period included ideas about causes of cancer, the complex nature of families and kinship, coping and support, use of food, and healing. These initial findings have implications for genetic counseling practice and hopefully will stimulate more qualitative social and behavioral research in cancer genetic counseling.