Grantees of the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (Tribal MIECHV) program employed rigorous methods for study design, data collection, and health measures that are culturally relevant to Native populations.
Methodological Considerations for Home-Visiting Research in Tribal Communities
Published in: Infant Mental Health Journal, Volume 39, Issue3 (May/June 2018), Pages 303-311. doi:10.1002/imhj.21709
Posted on RAND.org on June 29, 2018
Research Question
- How have grantees of the Tribal MIECHV program designed studies that are both rigorous and valid in the context of their specific Native populations?
Drawing on previous studies and the collective experience of conducting rigorous evaluations as part of the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting grants, we outline methodological considerations that will inform future research in tribal communities, particularly in the area of home visiting. The methodological issues we discuss are study design choices, measurement and data collection, and including community members in all aspects of the research.
Key Findings
- Tribal MIECHV grantees incorporated design decisions into their studies to address challenges such as small sample sizes, cultural norms, historical trauma from previous outside research practices, and lack of measures and models that have been validated in tribal contexts.
- Considerations for successful evaluations include establishing trust and enthusiasm for participation by involving community members throughout the process, incorporating indigenous ways of knowing with Western scientific approaches, and being prepared to collect data in Native languages.
- The innovative design decisions made by grantees advance scientific knowledge of tribal home visiting programs, as well as methods for conducting research in tribal communities.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.