Case Study 01
CDC Department of Violence Prevention: Social Norms Research
The CDC Department of Violence Prevention was interested in creating a messaging framework to change the social norms around corporal punishment among diverse parents. To create effective and engaging messages, they first needed to understand how beliefs and attitudes about spanking, punishing, and nurturing young children differed among parents from different cultural backgrounds.
ACR was subcontracted to Banyan Communications to collect feedback from diverse parents of children ages 0-5 to explore parental beliefs and attitudes about corporal punishment and nurturing; identify perceived social norms around corporal punishment; and identify salient, motivating, and culturally appropriate language and messages that could change perceived norms around corporal punishment.
One critical consideration for this research was ensuring participants were comfortable and willing to share personal and sensitive information about parenting. We took several steps to make this happen:
- Focus groups (n=13) were segmented by gender and race/ethnicity and moderators were matched to the race/ethnicity and gender of the focus group participants;
- Moderators participated in a detailed training, which included mock focus groups with actual parents and a detailed review of questions for cultural accuracy;
- We recruited participants through trusted and familiar community partners (e.g. schools, community centers, churches) and hosted the groups at these locations.
Our research and analysis led to 12 strategic messages developed by Banyan, and also supported a peer-reviewed publication published by the CDC principal investigators[1].
[1] Klevens, J., Kollar, L., Rizzo, G., O’Shea, G., & Nguyen, J., & Roby, S. (2019). Commonalities and differences in social norms related to corporal punishment among Black, white, and Latino parents. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal Special Issue: Social Norms. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-018-0591-z
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Content Development Partner
ACR brings the highest level of strategic thought, confidence, and professionalism to all projects. ACR has often been required to meet tight deadlines and manage multi-level client approval processes. They always deliver on time and without cutting corners, while managing expectations along the way.
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Client, City Agency
ACR takes the time to understand what I’m looking to learn from each evaluation, and they design and revise their methods to answer my specific questions. As a result, their research captures meaningful data and evidence of impact, and their analysis and recommendations directly relate to my programs. Their work has directly influenced programmatic decisions and policy.
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Client, Higher Ed
ACR’s knowledge, insight and understanding of our goals helped to foster a very collaborative working relationship. ACR’s team members became an invaluable part of my project team.
