Diversity and representation in infant research: Barriers and bridges toward a globalized science of infant development

Abstract

Psychological researchers have become increasingly concerned with generalized accounts of human behavior based on narrow participant representation. This concern is particularly germane to infant research as findings from infant studies are often invoked to theorize broadly about the origins of human behavior. In this article, we examined participant diversity and representation in research published on infant development in four journals over the past decade. Sociodemographic data were coded for all articles reporting infant data published in Child Development, Developmental Science, Developmental Psychology, and Infancy between 2011 and 2022. Analyses of 1682 empirical articles, sampling approximately 1 million participants, revealed consistent under-reporting of sociodemographic information. For studies that reported sociodemographic characteristics, there was an unwavering skew toward White infants from North America/Western Europe. To address a lack of diversity in infant studies and its scientific impact, a set of principles and practices are proposed to advance toward a more globally representative science.