The Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA) at the Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW) is an applied research program dedicated to improving the evidence base of understanding risk and protective factors influencing mental health, child development, and family functioning as well as intervention research to develop and test behavioral interventions for children and families affected by multiple forms of adversity, including armed conflict, poverty, and infectious disease. The RPCA manages a diverse global research portfolio; including several active projects, the details for which can be found at bc.edu/rpca.
Reporting to the RPCA’s Associate Director of Research, the Research Scientist will support Sugira Muryango (SM): A Family Strengthening Intervention for Early Childhood Development and Violence Prevention project based in Rwanda. SM targets families in extreme poverty with young children birth-36 months. The intervention supports responsive parenting to promote early child development and prevent violence through active in-home coaching and father engagement. Standard content on early childhood stimulation, nutrition, and hygiene are presented, along with content on problem-solving, conflict resolution, and stress management. SM is being transitioned to a larger scale-up, reaching all Ubudehe 1 (those in the most extreme poverty) in three districts in Rwanda using Collaborative Teams as an implementation strategy to reach over 10,000 children and more than 14,300 caregivers.
The Research Scientist will play a vital role in providing expertise in implementation science and intervention research and will ensure that SM is delivered as intended (i.e., content, frequency, etc.) which is critical to the successful translation of evidence-based interventions into practice. The Research Scientist will also oversee an embedded cluster-randomized trial (CRT) and will ensure that all data collected from the CRT and expansion study is processed and analyzed in accordance with the lab’s best practices. The Research Scientist will ensure findings are disseminated in accordance with the study’s aims and objectives. The incumbent will be responsible for:
●Providing implementation science/intervention research expertise in research projects and scientific activities.
●Contributing to all aspects of projects including data acquisition and cleaning, study design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation.
●Collaborates with Rwanda-based implementation and capacity building partners, and data collection firm; supervises research associates and statisticians.
●Serves as lead and/or contributing author of protocols, reports, and manuscripts, as appropriate.
●Participating in project initiation activities, including the development of proposals and responses to research funding opportunities.