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The Center forges the leading edge of scientific inquiry in child and family policy. It strives to become the leading group in the country that conducts scientific research that addresses simultaneously the nature of children’s development and public policies of relevance to the lives of children, youth, and their families. Included are descriptive studies of children’s lives across time, especially as they are affected by important societal institutions such as school, church, community, and government, and as they encounter life’s challenges such as parental divorce and puberty.
The Center supports descriptive studies of how children move into public service systems (e.g., welfare, special education, mental health, corrections) as well as experiments and descriptions of the effects of these service systems on children’s development.
Also, the process of child and family policy formulation itself is being scrutinized. The research portfolio of the Center balances disciplinary perspectives, ranging from economics to clinical psychology and from developmental epidemiology to political science, and will emphasize the new knowledge that can be gained from inquiry at the intersections of these disciplines.
The topics being pursued reflect, rather than force, the interests of Center faculty members. The Center is an "open tent" that is guided by the principle that optimal contributions result from a portfolio that includes both depth and breadth of coverage in child and family development and policy.
Programs of research are under way in these areas:
- how chronic conduct problems develop and can be prevented
- the dynamic interplay between children’s needs and parents’ work schedules
- how education financing priorities affect children’s development
- the unique contributions that mothers and fathers make in children’s development
- the consequences of early physical abuse and neglect of children
- the effects of education programs and reforms on children’s development
- the cost-effectiveness of intensive neonatal care
- the effects of father absence on girls’ development
- peer influences on the development of substance use, violence, and deviant behavior
- developmental epidemiology of mental illness and its relation to services for children
In order to accomplish this mission, the Center directly funds the following kinds of endeavors:
- seed grants to junior investigators
- pilot studies that are investments in securing larger external funding
- research assistantships to enable senior investigators to move into the child and family policy area
- collaborative studies that bring together investigators from diverse disciplines
- descriptive studies and program evaluations that bring Duke University to the community and government at the local, state, and national levels
The Center invests in postdoctoral-level Research Associates who form the core of the Center’s intellectual community. Their task is to support tenure-stream faculty who are building programs of research in child and family policy. In addition, these persons are encouraged to develop independent programs of research and to secure independent external funding, thereby freeing up Center funds to support additional Research Associates and allowing the Center to grow.
The Center provides an infrastructure of support for research grant development and management. Expertise is available in identifying funding agencies, in grant preparation (including editing, budgeting, duplication, securing university approval, and submission), and in grants management.
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