Collaborative Translation of Knowledge to Protect Infants During Sleep: A Synergy of Discovery and Practice

• Author: Stephanie Cowan,Wendy Middlemiss,Kaylee Seddio,Cory Kildare
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12279
• Published date: 01 October 2017
• Date: 01 October 2017

W M University of North Texas

S C Change for Our Children

C K  K S University of North Texas

Collaborative Translation of Knowledge to Protect

Infants During Sleep: A Synergy of Discovery and

Practice

The impact of discoveries from scientic

research is manifested in its timely application

to real-world conditions, with a goal of improv-

ing life. This is the desired research-to-practice

transition for new knowledge, yet it is not

always achieved. Where knowledge is sim-

ply transferred in its discovered form, there

can be unintended consequences and harmful

delays in achieving desired changes if there

is not also a cultural and contextual t with

targeted populations. This has been the case,

for example, in the failure of the “don’t bed-

share” message in protecting African American

infants, a message derived from the discovery of

heightened risk of death for infants who sleep

in the same bed as others. Knowledge trans-

fer implies movement in one direction: from

researchers to end-users. Family scientists, who

work with families, understand that knowledge

in its discovered form needs to be translated,

and not just transferred, if it is to be useful to

families and t with their values, preferences,

and circumstances. Unlike knowledge transfer,

Department of Educational Psychology, Matthews Hall

304-H, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203

(wendy.middlemiss@unt.edu).

Key Words: Collaborative translation, health messaging,

safe infant sleep, SIDS.

knowledge translation is bidirectional, with

multiple informants, including but not limited

to the new discoveries themselves. In this arti-

cle, we examine the history of discovery and

practice as it relates to preventingsudden infant

death. Using safer infant sleep as an example,

this review demonstrates the importance of

collaborative translation between discovery

and practice for developing health policies,

interventions and messaging that are enabling

for all families.

As has been illustrated in other articles in this

special issue, the strength of family science

is in its synergy of discovery and practice

(see Figure 1). Discovery informs practice, and

knowledge gained in practice informs discovery.

This bidirectional ow of knowledge helps fam-

ily scientists establish evidence-based policy

recommendations, educational programs, and

clinical interventions, resulting in an effective

translation of discoveries into language that is

meaningful, appropriate, and effective practice

with families. In contrast, policy, education, and

interventions can be relatively weak, ineffective,

or even harmful when the transfer of knowledge

is unidirectional; that is, when the feedback

loop from practice is absent in the realm of

discovery.

Family Relations 66 (October 2017): 659–669 659

DOI:10.1111/fare.12279