Empirical Evolution of Child Life

Certified Child Life Specialists are a well-documented component of family-centered care; however, because they typically work as members of multidisciplinary teams, it can be difficult to immediately recognize the scope of their contributions to health care research and practice. As the field continues to grow and evolve, it is even more essential that health care practitioners recognize, implement, and evaluate empirically supported child life services for patients and families across settings. Although the importance of scholarship for practice is well-recognized, there have not yet been any systematic analyses of the child life literature base. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to complete a scoping review of Certified Child Life Specialist authorship, participation, and presence in peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1996 to 2017. Results demonstrate statistically significant increases over time in research that is driven by and focused on Certified Child Life Specialists, as well as emerging trends in populations and interventions studied and the publication outlets in which these articles can be found. These findings highlight that although child life presence in research is increasing, there is more work to be done to improve academic and clinical training related to research, to expand the literature base as it stands, and to advocate for the inclusion of Certified Child Life Specialists in collaborative scholarship to improve psycho-social care for children and families.