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

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 93; no. 10; pp. 1672 - 1679
• Main Authors: McAllister, Carol L, Green, Beth L, Terry, Martha Ann, Herman, Vivian, Mulvey, Laurie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Am Public Health Assoc 01.10.2003; American Public Health Association; American Journal of Public Health 2003
• Subjects: Academies and Institutes - organization & administration; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Child, Preschool; Collaboration; Community; Community based programmes; Community Health Services - organization & administration; Community involvement; Community Participation; Community-Institutional Relations; Cooperative Behavior; Data collection; Early Intervention (Education) - organization & administration; Environmental health; Ethnic Groups; Family Health; Female; General populations; Head Start programmes; Head Start project; Health disparities; Health professionals; Health Services Research - methods; Health Services Research - organization & administration; Humans; Infant; Interinstitutional Relations; Medical sciences; Parents; Participatory research; Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh; Prevention and actions; Program Evaluation; Public health; Public Health Matters; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Qualitative research; Researcher-Subject Relations; Researchers; Social change; USA; Human; Sanitary program; Parent; Physician; Community health; Research; Child; Public health
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.93.10.1672

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.