Global Research Project 2022

The Dollywood Foundation and United Way Australia are very excited to announce the launch of our joint global research project with Macquarie University, the first-ever global research project for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL). PhD candidate Claire Galea will head up the project, which received ethics approval in June 2022. Parent survey data collection is underway in Australia and will launch for new registrations in all other countries on October 10th, 2022. If you choose to opt-out, please do so before October 9, 2022.

Important Information to Know:

The research consists of 3 surveys total to parents/caregivers during a one-year period:
1. The initial survey will be emailed to each parent/caregiver upon enrollment into DPIL, before the first book arrives. This automated initial survey will be the baseline. View the initial email here.
2. The follow-up survey will be automatically triggered at 6 months of enrollment.
3. The final survey will be automatically triggered at 12 months of enrollment.
If a parent is removed from the BOS or books stop because they are inactive in the system, the surveys will also stop. If the email address is updated on the child's profile, the surveys will be sent to the new email address.
If this research project conflicts with local research that is underway or planned, you can opt-out by following the steps below. Opting out must be completed by October 9, 2022 as the research project will launch on October 10, 2022.

Further Details about the Research:

Aim: To use information collected by DPIL surveys to measure the short-term and intermediate impacts of the DPIL program across all five countries.

Short-term impacts include enhanced home literacy environment, positive attitudes about reading and motivation to read as well as increased interactions between caregivers and children during shared book reading. Intermediate impacts include increased emerging literacy skills such as concepts about print, alphabet knowledge, receptive and expressive vocabulary and phonological memory and awareness.

Research Output: Peer-reviewed publications will be written and published in 2024. Preliminary research data will be made available to local program partners in 2025 and subsequent reports published.

Impact: These papers will inform stakeholders, including governments and funders within Australia and globally about the effectiveness of DPIL. The research design aims to be able to provide local program partners with access to their local survey data that may be compared against the global data.

If you have any questions about this research project, please contact Claire Galea [email protected].

You can follow these steps to opt-out of this project.