data collection​

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Recruitment

 

Working with the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan, we recruited mothers after giving birth at hospitals in four metropolitan areas: New York City, greater New Orleans, the Twin Cities, and the Omaha metropolitan area. Eligible mothers who chose to participate completed a baseline interview about their work, education, family background, household income, relationship with the baby’s father, mental health, and neighborhood of residence. View the recruitment materials.

 

Quantitative Data Collection at birth and ages 1, 2, 3, and 4

See details in Data and Documentation. 

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12-month visit (complete): Approximately one year after the child’s birth, each mother was invited to participate in a follow up survey. Information about the child’s health and development, maternal health, family income, and family life was collected. For data collection prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the surveys were administered in the families' homes. For this subset of participants, mother and child interactions were videotaped during a brief ten minute interaction, and infant brain activity was assessed using mobile EEG technology.

 

24-month visit (complete): Approximately two years after the child’s birth, mothers were invited to participate in a telephone interview. Information that was collected is broadly similar to that collected at the 12-month visit.

 

36-month visit (complete): Approximately three years after the child’s birth, mothers were  invited to participate in a telephone interview. Information collected is broadly similar to that collected 12 and 24 months.

 

48-month visit (complete): Approximately four years after the child’s birth, families were invited to local university settings to complete questionnaires related to their life experiences and child's development, and we directly assessed children's cognitive and emotional development and brain function.

 

Qualitative Data Collection at ages 10, 19, 27, and 40 months

 

When the child is between 8 and 12 months, a random sample of 80 mothers in two of the sites was invited to participate in the qualitative study. Participating mothers were drawn equally from the high- and low-cash groups. The topics covered in the interview vary over time, but they focus on the meaning and experience of the cash gifts with emphasis on family finances, employment, home environment, child care, stress, and family support, as well as parental values and future dreams.

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More information about the Baby’s First Years measures and analysis plan

 

The Baby’s First Years study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov and the Registry of Efficacy and Effectiveness and the AEA RCT Registry. Registration of study measures before data are viewed by researchers makes public the hypotheses predicted by the research team prior to data collection. Because Baby’s First Years is a multi-year study, new measures are continuously under consideration, and all measures will be thoroughly piloted for feasibility and participant burden prior to data collection. Thus, while the Baby’s First Years principal investigators clearly laid out hypotheses for the quantitative data prior to the launch of the study, some of the measures used to test those hypotheses may change from what was initially registered. With the advent of new measures and technological advances, along with information about feasibility of procedures gleaned from pilot testing, it is likely that the final battery of surveys and assessments will be revised. We will make every effort to transparently update this website, as well as our entries on both registration websites, as soon as changes are finalized. In no case will planned measures be changed after analysis of quantitative data from study participants.

 

Qualitative interviews are audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed. First, all interviews are coded using a pre-established set of themes to examine issues that answer key research questions. Second, the research team uses an inductive approach, using line-by-line open coding on a subsample of transcripts, which allows us to encounter unexpected themes.