Locating longitudinal study participants 10 years after last contact: Contemporary approaches to sample retention.

AIMS: Despite their advantages, longitudinal studies often face high rates of attrition. This study documents the extensive efforts associated with retaining a longitudinal cohort last contacted 10 years earlier. METHOD: We examine the processes and outcomes of attempts to reach 1736 individuals who have been part of a multiwave study about growing up in Ontario, Canada. Contact methods include email, phone, text, social media, postal mail, announcements in newspapers, subway stations, and music streaming services. RESULTS: Challenges included a lack of consistent annual communication with participants, children moving out of the parental home, and changes in email addresses and phone numbers. The most effective contact method was phone; text messages and friend referrals were the least effective. Overall, 41.5% of the original sample was reached. Locating former research participants years later necessitated multiple and repeated contact attempts, and intensive human resources. CONCLUSION: Ten lessons for effective sample retention are discussed. In summary, reducing attrition depends on a comprehensive study design and an organized and flexible protocol that adapts to a study's ever-changing needs.

Interprofessional empathy: A four-stage model for a new understanding of teamwork.

Collaboration in healthcare implies that health providers share responsibility and partner with each other in order to provide comprehensive patient care. A review of the empirical literature on teamwork in healthcare settings suggests that the relationships between service providers remain conflictual and variable in commitment to interprofessional collaboration. Recently, social psychologists have given considerable attention to the possibility that empathy could be used to improve intergroup attitudes and relations. Although empathy may be referred to as a means to humanize healthcare practices, few published studies from the healthcare literature focus on the nature of interprofessional empathy. Understanding frameworks different from your own and empathizing with other members of the team is fundamental to collaborative practice. The aim of this study was to understand the nature of empathy among members of interprofessional teams within a hospital environment. This study followed the lived experience of 24 health professionals with their perspective of empathy on interprofessional teams. A two-step procedure was used consisting of semi-structured interviews and depth interviews. Phenomenological data analysis was used to identify common themes and meanings across interviews. From the findings, a four-stage developmental model of interprofessional empathy emerged: Stage 1 is engaging in conscious interactions; Stage 2 requires using dialogical communication; Stage 3 is obtained when healthcare professionals consolidate understanding through negotiating differences between each other; and Stage 4 shows mastery of nurturing the collective spirit. Knowledge of this stage model will provide clinicians with the information necessary to develop awareness of how day-to-day activities within their interprofessional teams influence the development of interprofessional empathy.

Longitudinal analysis of virtual community perceptions of cohesion: The role of cooperation, communication, and competition.

Online, virtual group interactions may help adherence to health promotion programs. The purpose of this study was to explore longitudinal relationships among dimensions of group cohesion and group-interaction variables to inform and improve group-based strategies within programs aimed at promoting physical activity in virtual communities. In all, 56 online virtual users completed a group dynamics-based physical activity promotion intervention and assessments of group cohesion and group interaction at baseline and 4 weeks. Friendly competition and cooperation were consistently strong predictors of cohesion. Facilitating a sense of friendly competition and cooperation may increase engagement in physical activity programs by bolstering group cohesion.

Social Change: Toward an Informed and Critical Understanding of Social Justice and the Capabilities Approach in Community Psychology.

Community psychology has long been concerned with social justice. However, deployments of this term are often vague and undertheorized. To address this weakness in the field's knowledge body we explored John Rawls's theory of social justice and Amartya Sen's economic theory of the capabilities approach and evaluated each for its applicability to community psychology theory, research, and action. Our unpacking of the philosophical and political underpinnings of Rawlsian theory of social justice resulted in identifying characteristics that limit the theory's utility in community psychology, particularly in its implications for action. Our analysis of the capability approach proposed by Amartya Sen revealed a framework that operationalizes social justice in both research and action, and we elaborate on this point. Going beyond benefits to community psychology in adopting the capabilities approach, we posit a bi-directional relationship and discuss how community psychology might also contribute to the capabilities approach. We conclude by suggesting that community psychology could benefit from a manifesto or proclamation that provides a historical background of social justice and critiques the focus on the economic, sociological, and philosophical theories that inform present-day conceptualizations (and lack thereof) of social justice for community psychology.

Cost-Savings Analysis of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures Community-Based Project for Young Children and Their Families: A 10-Year Follow-up.

This study examined the long-term cost-savings of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures (BBBF) initiative, a community-based early intervention project for young children living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods during their transition to primary school. A quasi-experimental, longitudinal two-group design was used to compare costs and outcomes for children and families in three BBBF project neighborhoods (n = 401) and two comparison neighborhoods (n = 225). A cost-savings analysis was conducted using all project costs for providing up to 4 years of BBBF programs when children were in junior kindergarten (JK) (4 years old) to grade 2 (8 years old). Data on 19 government service cost measures were collected from the longitudinal research sample from the time the youth were in JK through to grade 12 (18 years old), 10 years after ending project participation. The average family incremental net savings to government of providing the BBBF project was $6331 in 2014 Canadian dollars. When the BBBF monetary return to government as a ratio of savings to costs was calculated, for every dollar invested by the government, a return of $2.50 per family was saved. Findings from this study have important implications for government investments in early interventions focused on a successful transition to primary school as well as parenting programs and community development initiatives in support of children's development.

Better Beginnings, Better Futures: Theory, research, and knowledge transfer of a community-based initiative for children and families / Better Beginnings, Better Futures [a mejor comienzo, mejor futuro]: teoría, investigación y transferencia de conocimientos de una iniciativa comunitaria con niños y familias

Better Beginnings, Better Futures is an early childhood initiative focused on promoting healthy development of children and families in economically disadvantaged communities. The Better Beginnings approach is ecological and holistic, community-driven, integrated with existing community services and supports, and universally available to children aged 4-8 within communities in which it is offered. The Better Beginnings initiative effectively illustrates the concept of wellness as fairness through its efforts to create more just social conditions and its connection to both procedural and distributive justice, the two principles of fairness outlined by Prilleltensky (2012). Through the development of programs that support children, parents, families, and the community as a whole, Better Beginnings initiatives are able to promote children’s development by building community capacity to create healthy and positive environments for children. This paper provides an overview of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures initiative from its outset in 1990 to the present, with a view towards examining the ways in which knowledge generated from such initiatives can be transferred to other communities

Better Beginnings, Better Futures [a mejor comienzo, mejor futuro] es una iniciativa dirigida a la primera infancia para fomentar el desarrollo de la salud de niños y familias en comunidades económicamente des favorecidas. El enfoque Better Beginnings es ecológico, holístico, impulsado por la comunidad, integrado en los servicios y el apoyo existentes en la comunidad y de acceso universal para niños de entre 4 y 8 años en aquellas comunidades a las que se ofrece. Esta iniciativa ilustra meridianamente el concepto de bienestar como justicia a través de su esfuerzo por crear unas condiciones sociales más justas y su relación tanto con la justicia procedimental como con la distributiva, los dos principios descritos por Prilleltensky (2012). Mediante la puesta en marcha de programas de apoyo a niños, padres, familias y comunidad como un todo, estas iniciativas pueden impulsar el desarrollo de los niños al crear la capacidad comunitaria para potenciar entornos saludables y positivos para los niños. Este trabajo presenta una descripción de la iniciativa Better Beginnings, Better Futures desde su arranque en 1990 hasta la actualidad, con la vista puesta en el análisis de las distintas maneras de traspasar los conocimientos surgidos de estas iniciativas a otras comunidades

Exploring outcomes through narrative: the long-term impacts of Better Beginnings, Better Futures on the turning point stories of youth at ages 18-19.

This study examined the long-term effects of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures project, a community-based early childhood development program, on 18-19 year-old youths' narratives about turning points in their lives. The sample consisted of youth who participated in Better Beginnings from ages 4-8 (n = 62) and youth from a comparison community who did not participate in Better Beginnings (n = 34). Controlling for covariates, significant differences favoring youth from the Better Beginnings sites were found on several dimensions of the turning point stories: ending resolution, personal growth, meaning-making, coherence, and affect transformation. Effect sizes ranged from .45 to .76 for these outcome dimensions, indicating moderate to large effects. Also, turning point story dimensions were found to be significantly correlated with two standardized measures of well-being: youths' self-esteem and community involvement. Youths' self-esteem was directly related to story ending resolution, personal growth, and meaning making, and youths' community involvement was directly related to story specificity, meaning making, and coherence. Family functioning was also examined in relation to these narrative dimensions but was not found to be significantly related to them. The findings suggest the utility of a narrative approach for the evaluation of the long-term outcomes of early childhood development programs.

The Impact of Choice and Control on Women's Childbirth Experiences.

Women's choice and control impact birthing experiences. This study used a qualitative, descriptive approach to explore how women develop their initial birth plan and how changes made to the plan affect overall birth experiences. Narrative, semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 women who had given birth in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, and data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Findings showed that women relied on many resources when planning a birth and that changes made to a woman's initial birth plan affected her recollection of the birth experience. Conclusions are that women's positive and negative recollections of their birth experiences are related more to feelings and exertion of choice and control than to specific details of the birth experience.

The Better Beginnings, Better Futures project: findings from grade 3 to grade 9.

Although comprehensive and ecological approaches to early childhood prevention are commonly advocated, there are few examples of long-term follow-up of such programs. In this monograph, we investigate the medium- and long-term effects of an ecological, community-based prevention project for primary school children and families living in three economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Ontario, Canada. The Better Beginnings, Better Futures (BBBF) project is one of the most ambitious Canadian research projects on the long-term impacts of early childhood prevention programming to date. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development informed program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Using a quasi-experimental design, the BBBF longitudinal research study involved 601 children and their families who participated in BBBF programs when children were between 4 and 8 years old and 358 children and their families from sociodemographically matched comparison communities. We collected extensive child, parent, family, and community outcome data when children were in Grade 3 (age 8­9), Grade 6 (age 11­12), and Grade 9 (age 14­15). The BBBF mandate was to develop programs that would positively impact all areas of child's development; our findings reflect this ecological approach. We found marked positive effects in social and school functioning domains in Grades 6 and 9 and evidence of fewer emotional and behavioral problems in school across the three grades. Parents from BBBF sites reported greater feelings of social support and more positive ratings of marital satisfaction and general family functioning, especially at the Grade 9 follow-up. Positive neighborhood-level effects were also evident. Economic analyses at Grade 9 showed BBBF participation was associated with government savings of $912 per child. These findings provide evidence that an affordable, ecological, community-based prevention program can promote long-term development of children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods and produce monetary benefits to government as soon as 7 years after program completion.

When one plus one equals three: the role of relationships and context in community research.

This paper explores the role of relationships within and between the community of the researchers and the community of the research participants, as they relate to qualitative, community psychology research. Although relationships are salient to all research, their role is particularly prominent in qualitative research, in which a closer rapport is established between researcher and research participant than in quantitative research, and the impact of both sides of this interaction on the research process is acknowledged. Instead of merely looking at the community and relationships of the participants, the usual focus of research, this paper also explores the often-overlooked community and relationships of the researchers and then goes on to look at the impact on the research process of the interaction of these two separate communities. This inside story, while seldom explicitly explored or articulated, has implications for community research in general and particularly for applied research.