Clinical Research Directory

The Effect of Interaction-Based Early Education Program Applied to Grandparents on the Grandchildren's Health

In our study, "Does the early childhood intervention applied to grandparents as caregivers affect the child's growth, development (cognitive and socio-emotional development), and nutrition? Does early childhood intervention apply to grandparents as caregivers have an impact on caregiving characteristics, grandparent's health, attachment, parenting role, psychosocial well-being, role satisfaction, and communication with the child? Is early childhood intervention applied to grandparents as caregivers effective in creating a common language between grandparents and mothers on child care issues?" the answers to these questions will be tried to be answered. This randomized controlled study will be conducted between July 2023 and July 2024 with children aged 0-4 years and their parents/grandparents using a mixed methodology. Children between the ages of 0-4 will be included in the study group, and those who are only cared for by their grandparents will be included in the study group, and cared for by their parents will be included in the control group. The study will consist of 2 stages. The first phase will be conducted with a pilot study group to establish the training program. After the 5-session program is administered, a qualitative analysis will be made and the program will be finalized according to the feedback. In the second stage of the study, a pre-test will be done through questionnaires, and then a training program will be applied to the group with grandparents as caregivers. The post-test will be applied to each group 6-8 weeks after the 5-group session ends. Pre-test and post-tests will be created in the online Google survey format. Pre-tests will only be applied to grandparents and mothers. Post-tests will be carried out at 4 practice times (after 6-8 weeks, 6th, 9th, and 12th months after the end of the intervention) determined for the evaluation of both parental and childhood outcomes. The second qualitative analysis will be made in a group format with the grandparents who applied for the program and the mothers (parents) of those children. For the qualitative analysis, the pre-created semi-structured interview format will be used after obtaining the consent of the participants, and if they give their consent, a voice recording will be taken. Fathers will also be informed and encouraged to participate and will be included in the qualitative phase of the study if they give consent for participation.

Using Structured Video Chat to Improve Relationships Between Young Children and Remote Grandparents

During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic many families are using video chat (e.g., Zoom) to maintain relationships with distant relatives, including grandparents. While 67% of all grandparents reported liking the idea of video chatting with their grandchildren, only 28% did so regularly. Increasing this percentage could significantly improve grandparent-grandchild relationships because the Preliminary Study 1 showed that video chat frequency is a strong predictor of grandparent's ratings of closeness to their grandchild, even after controlling for the geographic distance between them. The overall goal of the past, ongoing, and future research is to understand the cognitive and social developmental challenges of video chat in order to support its use with children. As the next step towards this goal, the investigators propose to directly compare two approaches to instructing grandparents on how to improve video chats between grandparents and young grandchildren (18-72 months of age). Families will use video chat without the involvement of researchers during each video chat. Parent-child- grandparent triads (n=180; the largest multi-session observational study of young children and video chat to date) will record 10 video chats under one of three randomly-assigned conditions: structured play, structured reading, or when given no instructions (control). The overall hypothesis is that structured video chat will increase children's engagement and joint attention (primary outcome measures), as well as grandparents' enjoyment of video chat and closeness with their grandchild (secondary outcome measures). The investigators will use detailed behavioral coding of the video recordings of these chats to objectively assess many of the outcome measures. The Preliminary Study 2 showed that structured video chat facilitates more positive social interactions. The proposed work extends the preliminary work because it translates laboratory methods to a complementary ecologically-valid approach in families' naturalistic environments. In Aim 1, the investigators will determine whether and for whom structured video chat improves child engagement and increases child-initiated screen- based joint attention during video chats between grandparents and grandchildren. In Aim 2, the investigators will determine whether structured video chat increases grandparents' enjoyment of the video chats and leads to greater feelings of closeness to their grandchild. Both principal investigators, who are at R15-eligible institutions, are well-qualified to complete the proposed work. Since 2017, they have published 9 papers on video chat, 12 papers on reading, and collaboratively completed 3 preliminary studies and 2 papers. They have mentored 77 undergraduate students, many of whom were co-authors on conference posters or presentations (37 students in total; 22 as a presenter) or journal articles. Importantly, 17 students came from underrepresented groups (BIPOC, first- generation in college, LGBT). A total of 47 are pursuing or have completed graduate work in health-related sciences, including 15 for doctoral degrees. The proposed work addresses a National Institute for Child Health \& Development, Child Development and Behavior Branch's (CDBB) priority of advancing understanding of "Effects of Technology and Digital Media Use on Child and Adolescent Development."