[MATHLINK] Child Development Special Section - From Lab to Life: Broadening the Impact of Research in Early Childhood Development

[Libertus, Melissa]

Dear MCLS community,

Rachel Thibodeau-Nielsen (University of Missouri - Columbia) and Melissa Libertus (University of Pittsburgh) are editing a special section of Child Development entitled “From Lab to Life: Broadening the Impact of Research in Early Childhood Development”

Developmental science has long informed theory and practice related to early learning, health, and well-being. Increasingly, scholars are called upon to articulate and demonstrate the broader impacts of their work—how research can directly influence policies, programs, practices, technologies, and public understanding to improve developmental outcomes and reduce inequities (Barbot et al., 2020; Shonkoff, 2020).

Child Development invites submissions for a special section focused on broader impacts research targeting early childhood development (prenatal through age 8). This section seeks to advance understanding of how developmental science can be intentionally designed, implemented, evaluated, and scaled to generate meaningful societal benefits for young children, their families, and the systems that serve them. By foregrounding broader impacts as a central concern of developmental science (Hassinger-Das et al., 2021; Pesch et al., 2022), this special section aims to highlight rigorous, impact-oriented scholarship that seeks to meaningfully improve early childhood outcomes and produce tangible benefits for the communities it seeks to understand and support.

We encourage submissions that push the field to think creatively and critically about how early childhood research can achieve sustained, equitable, and scalable impact. Papers should reflect innovative, actionable approaches to addressing real-world problems relevant to early childhood development, as critical foundations for future development are laid during this period, and interventions tend to show a higher payoff than those in later stages of development (Garcia et al., 2020; Jeong et al., 2021; Reynolds et al., 2011). The special section will consider empirical articles presenting original quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods research demonstrating broader impacts; methodological contributions that introduce or refine tools and approaches for studying broader impacts; and integrative reviews or meta-analyses that synthesize evidence on pathways from research to impact.

For more information visit: https://www.srcd.org/call-papers-special-section-child-development-lab-life-broadening-impact-research-early-childhood

Letters of intent are due Monday, June 1, 2026


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Melissa Libertus, PhD (she/her)
Professor, Dept. of Psychology
Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of Psychology
Research Scientist, Learning Research and Development Center
University of Pittsburgh
626 Murdoch
3420 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Email: libertus at pitt.edu
Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/my/melissa.libertus
Phone: (412) 624-7457

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