Post-doctoral Fellowships at the Research Program on Children and Adversity

Apr 17,2018 | Consortium_staff Fellowships

Dr. Theresa S. Betancourt’s Research Program on Children and Adversity at Boston College School of Social Work is seeking two post-doctoral fellows, one based in Rwanda and one in Boston, with a focus on mixed and quantitative methods, early childhood development, global mental health, and implementation science. The funding opportunities in Boston is for one year, renewable based on available funding and the position in Rwanda would be funded up to two years.

The Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA) focuses on understanding trajectories of risk and resilience in children facing multiple forms of adversity, including poverty, conflict, and infectious disease. Through quantitative and qualitative research methods, the program investigates key mechanisms shaping child development and mental health. The program develops targeted psychosocial interventions that support positive life outcomes that can be effectively delivered at scale in low-resource settings. Overall, the program team works to develop evidence-based, transdiagnostic interventions that are feasible and cost effective, to support positive life outcomes. These outcomes are key to child health, social services, and the economic development agendas.

Eligibility Requirements

  • Doctoral degree, preferably in Public Health, Implementation Science, Social Work, Developmental Psychology, Mental Health, or another related field.
  • The Postdoctoral Fellow will need to be a self-driven, creative thinker with strong statistical and qualitative skills to help develop methods which investigate intervention effectiveness in terms of child development and parenting outcomes
  • Coursework/training in psychometrics, hybrid designs, cluster randomized control trials, and implementation science is preferred
  • Strong ability in use of advanced statistical and computational programming
  • Strong background in implementation science to include hybrid design, cluster randomized control trials, longitudinal studies, and quality improvement approaches to fidelity and supervision that relate to long-term sustainability and scalability
  • (Rwanda Post-doctoral Fellow) Particular research interest in intimate partner violence (IPV) desirable.
  • Some background related to conducting research in culturally diverse contexts, preferably in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)
  • Publication record that demonstrates candidate’s capacities is also desirable
  • Proficiency in utilizing computer applications including Microsoft Office, STATA, R, MAXQDA, and other applicable quantitative and qualitative data analysis platforms.
  • Expert knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies including mixed-methods
  • Knowledge of Community Based Participatory Research (CPBR), implementation science in LMICs, processes related to fidelity monitoring and supervision, and costing analysis
  • Understanding of the application of technology both for data collection as well as routine symptom monitoring, fidelity monitoring and quality improvement efforts in global mental health and child development
  • (Boston Post-doctoral Fellow) Ability to travel internationally in order to supervise and support research projects in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and across New England.

Applications

The positions are posted on Boston Colleges’ Career website under requisition 1817 (Boston-based postdoc) and 1663 (Rwanda-based postdoc).