About this session

Friday, 1:20 PM - 2:50 PM

Contributions of Research in Majority World Countries to the Understanding of Child Development

This roundtable discussion will focus on the important strategic goals of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), which involve integrating diversity and advancing developmental science. The discussion will center on how research conducted in majority world countries can provide unique insights into child development. The roundtable will feature four panelists from different institutions worldwide, engaging in a lively discussion on how scholars from majority world countries can enhance our understanding of child development from various perspectives.

The first panelist, Dr. Caylee Cook, a Senior Researcher working at DataDrive2030, a non-profit organization in South Africa, will discuss the challenges and opportunities of conducting research in South Africa and Africa. She will also engage in a conversation around issues of publishing child development research from majority world countries, highlighting strategies to overcome the under-representation of researchers from those contexts in the field (Draper et al., 2023). She will also speak to considerations around methods of assessing development across cultures and contexts and the need to reconsider what ‘gold standard’ means.

The second panelist, Dr. Daniela Aldoney, is an Associate Professor at the Universidad del Desarrollo, in Chile. She will discuss issues related to conducting child development research in Latin America, focusing on the work done with fathers in Chile. Her discussion aims to enrich the conversation about how scholars from diverse settings can contribute to child development theory globally. Additionally, Dr. Aldoney will address the challenges and opportunities of conducting parenting research in Chile (Susperreguy et al., in press).

The third panelist is Dr. Jennifer Lansford, Director of the Center for Child and Family Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, U.S. She will discuss her research efforts to study child development and parenting in different cultural contexts, highlighting the contributions of her 9-country (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the U.S.) study and the importance of building and maintaining international collaborative research teams (Lansford et al., 2016; 2019; 2022). She will discuss a range of issues in these collaborations, including culturally adapting measures, balancing flexibility and standardization in research protocols, and common comments from reviewers that arise in evaluating cross-national research.

The fourth panelist is Dr. Flavia H. Santos, Lecturer at the University College London & University College Dublin and the Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society Chair. Having collected data in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland on her funded projects, she will provide a unique perspective on representativeness and socioeconomic and cultural factors that influence the development of large-scale studies involving school children (e.g., lack of funding, training personnel, research culture, instrument validation), and the difficulty of accessing Indigenous groups, including language barriers. She will also discuss how to foster international collaborations when conducting global research and how scientific societies can actively promote diversity in samples and the research team, focusing on cognitive development and neuroscience.

Each panelist will offer their unique perspective on critical questions posed by the moderator (Dr. María Inés Susperreguy, an Associate Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile). Some examples of the questions the panelists will address include: Why is it important to study child development in diverse contexts around the world? What valuable insights into child development does research in the majority world provide? How can researchers effectively navigate the complexities of contributing to child development theory through research in the majority world? How can collaboration between researchers in the majority and minority worlds enrich the global understanding of child development? What proactive strategies can be implemented to overcome the challenges and barriers in conducting child development research in the majority world? And, more broadly, how can we drive the field towards a more inclusive child developmental science?

The overarching goal of this conversation roundtable is to bring together researchers from different institutions across the globe who are actively researching diverse topics on child development in majority world countries. These conversations offer an opportunity to highlight the voices of researchers from majority world countries and to collectively advance the field toward a more inclusive child development science. The panelists will discuss strategies to overcome difficulties faced in the field, with help from the audience, and provide short-, medium-, and long-term goals to collaboratively advance the SRCD strategic objectives of diversifying our field and improving our understanding of child development globally.

Child development research has predominantly focused on minority countries and less on majority world countries (i.e., the countries that comprise the majority of the world’s population). Despite efforts to diversify the research samples and methods, there is still a need for a more inclusive developmental science to understand child development comprehensively. A collaborative effort is needed to move the field forward. This roundtable conversation will provide an engaging dialogue around ways to do so, aligned with the SRCD strategic goals of advancing developmental science and integrating diversity.

The panelists will focus on the challenges of conducting research in majority world countries and the contributions of diversifying our field to improve our understanding of child development globally. Dr. María Inés Susperreguy (Chile) will moderate the panel, including colleagues from multiple institutions and countries (South Africa, Chile, the U.S., and the U.K.). The panelists (Dr. Caylee Cook, Dr. Daniela Aldoney, Dr. Jennifer Lansford, and Dr. Flavia Santos) come from diverse backgrounds and have engaged in several initiatives that aim to diversify research in child development, including collaborative research efforts and publications on these topics (Draper et al., 2023; Lansford et al., 2016; 2019; 2022; Susperreguy et al., in press).

The panelists will be prompted to discuss how to advance the field of child development by considering the contributions of research conducted in majority world countries. They will discuss strategies to promote minority/majority world collaboration and engage with the audience to identify future avenues to advance the field. Child development research has predominantly focused on minority countries and less on majority world countries (i.e., the countries that comprise the majority of the world’s population). Despite efforts to diversify the research samples and methods, there is still a need for a more inclusive developmental science to understand child development comprehensively. A collaborative effort is needed to move the field forward. This roundtable conversation will provide an engaging dialogue around ways to do so, aligned with the SRCD strategic goals of advancing developmental science and integrating diversity.

The panelists will focus on the challenges of conducting research in majority world countries and the contributions of diversifying our field to improve our understanding of child development globally. Dr. María Inés Susperreguy (Chile) will moderate the panel, including colleagues from multiple institutions and countries (South Africa, Chile, the U.S., and the U.K.). The panelists (Dr. Caylee Cook, Dr. Daniela Aldoney, Dr. Jennifer Lansford, and Dr. Flavia Santos) come from diverse backgrounds and have engaged in several initiatives that aim to diversify research in child development, including collaborative research efforts and publications on these topics (Draper et al., 2023; Lansford et al., 2016; 2019; 2022; Susperreguy et al., in press).

The panelists will be prompted to discuss how to advance the field of child development by considering the contributions of research conducted in majority world countries. They will discuss strategies to promote minority/majority world collaboration and engage with the audience to identify future avenues to advance the field.

Session moderator
Dr. Maria Ines Susperreguy, Ph.D., Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile

Panelists
Dr. Caylee Cook, DataDrive2030 , South Africa
Dr. Daniela Aldoney, Ph.D., Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) , Chile
Jennifer E. Lansford, Ph.D., Duke University , United States
Dr. Flavia H. Santos, University College London , United Kingdom

⇦ Back to schedule