Creating an Interdisciplinary Collaborative Network of Scholars in Child Maltreatment Prevention: A Network Analysis of the Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being.

BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment is a complex problem requiring interdisciplinary collaborative research to generate innovative solutions. The Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being were designed to identify and nurture emerging scholars committed to child maltreatment prevention and create a supportive interdisciplinary learning network.

OBJECTIVE: This paper examines connectivity within the collaborative network created by the fellowships program using longitudinal social network data.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 120 individuals selected as Doris Duke Fellows during their doctoral training at universities in the United States.

METHODS: Fellows completed annual, voluntary web-based surveys to assess their interactions with other fellows during the past year. Social network analysis methods were used to assess the strength and quality of the learning network over a four-year period.

RESULTS: Across four years of data, there were increases in the number of connections, proportion of cross-cohort connections, and proportion of interdisciplinary connections. Network analyses showed a highly connected network consisting of primarily medium- and high-quality connections between fellows from different disciplines. The number of scientific journal articles authored by two or more fellows grew substantially over time.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate the collaborative network created by the fellowships program is growing and strengthening over time. The new Child Well-Being Research Network extends the fellowships network to a broader group of scholars and professionals to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the field of child well-being research.