1. Chapter 13 Building Evidence-Based Family Policy:
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Building Evidence-Based Family Policy:
Insights from the Family Impact Seminars

2. © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
Chapter 13 Outline
Utilization of Social Science Research in Policymaking
Theory Behind Advancing Evidence-Based Family Policy
Community Dissonance Theory
Ecological Family Systems Theory
Using Family Impact Seminars to Communicate Research to Policymakers
What Are the Family Impact Seminars?
Core Components of the Family Impact Seminars
Track Record of the Family Impact Seminars
Effective Strategies for Advancing Evidence-Based Family Policy
Policymakers Are Not a Monolithic Group
Summary

3. Utilization of Social Science Research in Policymaking
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Utilization of Social Science Research in Policymaking
Public policy provides the conditions for families to deal with stressful conditions, but policymaking is not working as well as it could be for families.
Many feel policy ought to be based on rigorous research and dispassionate analysis, yet a substantial gap exists between knowledge production and its use in policy decisions.
Why has social scientists’ ability to generate high-quality, sophisticated research outpaced their ability to disseminate research into the policymaking process?
Connecting research and policy is a two-pronged process that involves policymakers becoming more research- minded and researchers becoming more policy-minded.

4. Theory Behind Advancing Evidence-Based Family Policy
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Theory Behind Advancing Evidence-Based Family Policy
If we are to increase the use of research in policy decisions, we need to know why it is not used.
The Family Impact Seminars build on community dissonance theory, which focuses on behavioral factors that can facilitate or impede the flow of communication across the research/policy divide.
The seminars also build on ecological family systems theory, which explains why policies and programs are important to family functioning, and how family functioning is important to individuals and society.

5. Community Dissonance Theory
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Community Dissonance Theory
Researchers and policymakers operate within very different institutional and professional cultures, which shape the way they think, act, and perceive the world.
Institutional culture includes the history, operating procedures, and rules under which people operate; it affects the pace of business, influences on decisionmaking, etc.
Professional culture includes training and socialization experiences, which establish the language, values, and practices that are considered normative.
Thus, researchers and policymakers operate in distinct work environments, speak a language of their own, prefer information in different formats, and so forth.
Increasing research use in policymaking depends on better understanding these institutional and professional cultures to improve communication and build trust.

6. Ecological Family Systems Theory
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Ecological Family Systems Theory
The theory combines Bronfenbrenner’s concentric nested circles representing human development and Minuchin’s structural family systems theory.
Families are the foremost influence on individual development; policies and programs shape the environment that families operate in, which can strengthen or undermine family functioning.
Organizational processes in families can promote the psychosocial development and protection of family members and help members adapt to changing cultural, economic, and social contexts.
This theory suggests that policy decisions might be more effective and efficient if policymakers knew what the family impacts might be and how family contributions could be supported.

7. Using Family Impact Seminars to Communicate Research to Policymakers
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Using Family Impact Seminars to Communicate Research to Policymakers
Over the last few decades, calls for evidence-based policy and practice have become routine in the United States.
Family Impact Seminars are one method for responding to policymakers’ interest in research evidence.
The goals of the Family Impact Seminars are:
to build greater use of and respect for research in policymaking
to encourage policymakers to examine policies and programs through the family impact lens
to provide a neutral, nonpartisan opportunity for legislators to engage in open dialogue for fostering relationships and finding common ground.

8. What Are the Family Impact Seminars?
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What Are the Family Impact Seminars?
The Seminars are an ongoing series of presentations, discussion sessions, and briefing reports for communicating high-quality, objective research to policymakers.
The Seminars target state policymakers, including legislators, legislative aides, governor’s office staff, nonpartisan legislative service analysts, and agency representatives.
To maintain a neutral, nonpartisan, off-the-record setting for dialogue and debate, lobbyists and the press are generally not invited.
Since 1993, over 175 seminars have been held in states across the country on family issues broadly defined, including child welfare, corrections, economic security, education, health care, jobs, parenting, and so forth.

9. Core Components of the Family Impact Seminars
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Core Components of the Family Impact Seminars
Easy access to timely research on issues legislators identify
Varied delivery formats
Includes oral presentations, discussions, written materials
Use of the family impact lens
Objective information
The seminars provide a range of policy options and the consequences of each, but do not lobby for a single option
Opportunities for discussion in a neutral, nonpartisan, off-the-record setting

10. What Is the Track Record of the Family Impact Seminars?
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What Is the Track Record of the Family Impact Seminars?
The seminars have a strong track record across several dimensions:
attracting policymakers
providing research that policymakers find relevant, useful, and objective
bringing the family impact lens to policy decisions
overcoming partisanship by building relationships across party lines
changing policymakers’ attitudes towards research, researchers, and family impacts
making research available that policymakers use in their jobs

11. Participant Ratings of the Family Impact Seminars
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Participant Ratings of the Family Impact Seminars
Mean participant ratings of 30 Wisconsin Family Impact Seminars (1993−2013)

12. Attitude Changes from the Family Impact Seminars
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Attitude Changes from the Family Impact Seminars
Because of the Family Impact Seminars, legislators are “quite a bit” more likely to:
Responses from Wisconsin legislators (N = 15, 88% response rate) following a 2006 seminar on long-term care.

13. Effective Strategies for Advancing Evidence-Based Family Policy
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Effective Strategies for Advancing Evidence-Based Family Policy
Conceptualize policy work, not as disseminating information to policymakers, but as developing relationships with them
Communicate research findings in ways that meet policymakers’ information needs
Policymakers operate in an oral culture so they prefer interactive presentations with opportunities for discussion
Provide a timely response to the questions driving policy debate
Kingdon’s theory of open policy windows
Take the initiative to contact policymakers

14. Policymakers Are Not a Monolithic Group
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Policymakers Are Not a Monolithic Group
Researchers should not be dissuaded from engaging policymakers due to the misperception that they do not value or use research.
Legislators vary in their valuing, seeking, and use of research.
Seek out those policymakers who are interested in research.
Cluster means of the valuing, seeking, and use of research among state legislators (N = 107).

15. © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
Summary
Evaluations indicate that the Family Impact Seminars help policymakers gain knowledge, utilize research, change attitudes, and build relationships with researchers and colleagues across party lines.
The Seminars have also affected universities’ receptivity and ability to engage with policy, support policy-relevant research, and train the next generation of policy-minded researchers and research-minded policymakers.
The Seminars’ track record lends support to community dissonance theory—that improving communication between policymakers and researchers can increase research use in policy decisions.