The Community-Engaged Lab: A Case-Study Introduction for Developmental Science

Abstract

Due to the closing of campuses, museums, and other public spaces during the pandemic, the typical avenues for recruitment, partnership, and dissemination are now unavailable to developmental labs. In this paper, we show how a shift in perspective has impacted our lab's ability to successfully transition to virtual work during the COVID-19 shut-down. This begins by recognizing that any lab that relies on local communities to engage in human research is itself a community organization. From this, we introduce a community-engaged lab model, and explain how it works using our own activities during the pandemic as an example. To begin, we introduce the vocabulary of mission-driven community organizations and show how we applied the key ideas of mission, vision, and culture to discussions of our own lab's identity. We contrast the community-engaged lab model with a traditional bi-directional model of recruitment from and dissemination to communities and describe how the community-engaged model can be used to reframe these and other ordinary lab activities. Our activities during the pandemic serve as a case study: we formed new community partnerships, engaged with child “citizen-scientists” in online research, and opened new avenues of virtual programming. One year later, we see modest but quantifiable impact of this approach: a return to pre-pandemic diversity in our samples, new engagement opportunities for trainees, and new sustainable partnerships. We end by discussing the promise and limitations of the community-engaged lab model for the future of developmental research.

The Bidirectional Engagement and Equity (BEE) Research Framework to Guide Community–Academic Partnerships: Developed From a Narrative Review and Diverse Stakeholder Perspectives

“…CBPR principles exist to promote partnership equity and social change. Studies have explored equity in community–academic partnerships and established programmes promoting equity in these partnerships [ 3 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Furthermore, studies have identified methods and measures to determine partnership synergy [ 4 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ].…”

A survey on the challenges, limitations, and opportunities of online testing of infants and young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: using our experiences to improve future practices

“…Other recently suggested solutions involve enhancing the relationship between a research team and their local community, which, among many possible positive outcomes, could connect researchers with underrepresented groups. Liu et al (2021), for example, have characterized the approach that some teams have taken as the "community-engaged lab, " a collaborative network involving researchers, local businesses, children and families, museums, and community nonprofits. The formation of such a network is different than a bi-directional model wherein researchers 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1160203 Frontiers in Psychology 11 frontiersin.org recruit participants from the community and then disseminate findings back to the community.…”