Promoting Family Resilience Through Evidence‐based Policy Making: Reconsidering the Link Between Adult–Infant Bedsharing and Infant Mortality

Evidence‐based policy making often has a direct or indirect goal of promoting family resilience. The authors consider the ways in which scholarly disagreements about evidence can challenge this goal, focusing on the debate regarding whether adult–infant bedsharing increases the risk of infant mortality. A central issue is whether scholars conclude that public policy should recommend against all bedsharing or only bedsharing in particular risky circumstances. The authors use context‐based evidence‐based policy making (Dobrow, Goel & Upshur, 2004) as a framework for a review of studies of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) correlates and SIDS mechanisms related to bedsharing as well as the reasons parents bed share. The authors discuss the implications of different interpretations of the evidence and point to the potential of adversarial collaboration in helping to address the points of disagreement and ultimately better support family resilience. The issues discussed in this case are broadly relevant to other debated evidence for family policy making.