Registers of Practices as an Evidence-Based Social Policy Mechanism for Child Welfare: An Analysis of International Experience

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Abstract

The article analyses the international experience of establishing evidence-based practice registers. Such registers are considered not as a “container” of once and for all selected “best practices”, but as a permanent mechanism of evidence-based social policy. Using the material of registers developed in the USA and the UK, the analysis of the most important structural components of the registers is carried out, with the main focus on the methodology and procedure of practice selection. The authors question the hierarchy of research methodologies and show that experimental design (randomized controlled trials) can be recognized as the “gold standard” of research only under certain conditions — if a linear, simple theory of change is adopted, while the adoption of a complex theory of change requires other research strategies and methods. Based on the analysis, several priority tasks are formulated that need to be addressed in order for the national register of practices being created in Russia to comply with the principles of evidence-based social policy.

General Information

Keywords: Evidence-based practice, evidence-based practice registers, effectiveness of psychological and social practices, social change, evidence-based social policy

Journal rubric: General Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/ssc.2021020101

For citation: Busygina N.P., Podushkina T.G., Freik N.V. Registers of Practices as an Evidence-Based Social Policy Mechanism for Child Welfare: An Analysis of International Experience [Elektronnyi resurs]. Sotsial’nye nauki i detstvo = Social Sciences and Childhood, 2021. Vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 7–23. DOI: 10.17759/ssc.2021020101. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

References

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Information About the Authors

Natalya P. Busygina, PhD in Psychology, Assistant Professor, Department of Counselling and Clinical Psychology, Chair of Individual and Group Psychotherapy, Moscow State University of Psychology an Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2344-9543, e-mail: boussyguina@yandex.ru

Tatiana G. Podushkina, Head of the Sector «Center for Evidence-Based Social Design», Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5966-8342, e-mail: poduschkina@mail.ru

Nataliya V. Freik, independent researcher, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4695-5131, e-mail: nfreik@gmail.ru

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