Child-Centric Intervention Research: The Devil is in the Detail
This paper discusses conceptual, ethical, pragmatic and paradigmatic constraints encountered in a T2 ‘bench to bedside’ translational research endeavour piloting an early intervention program for young children who have experienced sexual abuse. The resultant child-centric intervention research framework emerged from the challenges associated with trauma-related clinical work, the absence of an evidence-base and the difficulties of adopting traditional positivistic methodologies when evaluating practice in this complex field. Critically, the resultant framework was person-centred and, hence, individually responsive. More specifically, it was child-centred and so developmental and systemic issues were privileged.