Project Summary/Purpose
We are recruiting families during pregnancy and following them for their infants first 18 months. The goal of this project is to understand the early life experiences that help infants bounce back from hardships. We are interested in learning how families cope with common and uncommon stressors, how they support each other, and how family interactions affect the health of the entire family and the development of infants. We know very little about how fathers influence infant development and mothers’ health. Therefore, we are studying different types of families to see how family members influence each other’s health.

Procedures
As a participant in this study, you will complete 4 parts. All online questionnaires will be a link to a survey that is sent to either your cell phone or email address (your choice).
Part 1: You will complete an enrollment session online that will ask you questions about your demographics, social support, relationship satisfaction, your family history, pregnancy history, and your health (approximately 1 hour).
Part 2: You will complete 6 monthly online questionnaires that ask you about your demographics, social support, relationship satisfaction, infants’ health, and your health. You will complete the questionnaires once a month for six months after the birth of the child (30 minutes each). All online questionnaires will be a link to a survey that is sent to either your cell phone or email address (your choice).
Part 3: When the infant is 4-months old you will complete a home visit. The home visit will consist of two research assistants coming to your home and having you, your infant, and the infant’s father (if available) complete a series of interactive tasks. These tasks will be video recorded. In addition, yYou, your infant, and the infant’s father will also provide samples of saliva before (1 sample) and after engaging in the interactive tasks (2 samples) to understand how hormones in your saliva are related to parenting behaviors (90 minutes).
Part 4: When the infant is 12- and 18-months old, you will complete two additional home visits. These visits will be nearly identical to the first where you will complete a series of interactive tasks with your infant. These tasks will be video recorded, and you will provide samples of saliva before (1 sample) and after (1 sample) engaging in the interactive tasks. We will use the saliva to understand how hormones and immune system markers in your saliva or related to parenting behaviors (90 minutes). Additionally, you will complete the same online questionnaires you did when your infant was 4 months old.
Compensation
As a participating parent or family for the DADIO project, we provide you with a ClinCard debit card that we will use to disperse funds at each stage of the project. Each family unit will receive a total of $250 for their participation through this ClinCard. The payment schedule is listed below. In the event of separation from your partner, payment will go to the infant’s primary caregiver.
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