Parents and Children Together

Project Summary

Principal Investigator:  Geoffrey Brown
Funding Agency:  National Institute on Child Health and Development
Project Period:  2018-2023

This research project focuses on new African American fathers living in rural contexts.  The first aim of this study is to examine the influence of protective social networks on fathers’ relationships with their infants. A second aim is to investigate the fathering behaviors that are most likely to facilitate infant development.
We propose to recruit 200 young Black couples from rural Georgia communities who are unmarried and expecting their first child. Expectant mothers and fathers will be enrolled during the third trimester of pregnancy (Baseline). Fathers, mothers, and co-caregivers will participate in 3 follow up data collection visits when infants are 3 months, 12 months, and 24 months of age. We will implement a multi-informant and multi-method data collection strategy with self-reports from parents and co-caregivers, observations of parent-infant interactions and infant development, and social network data from mothers and fathers.