Baby's First Years (BFY), New York City, New Orleans, Omaha, and Twin Cities, 2018-2019 (ICPSR 37871)

Version Date: Nov 3, 2020 View help for published

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Katherine A. Magnuson, University of Wisconsin--Madison; Kimberly Noble, Columbia University. Teachers College; Greg J. Duncan, University of California, Irvine; Nathan A. Fox, University of Maryland, College Park; Lisa A. Gennetian, Duke University; Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University; Sarah Halpern-Meekin, University of Wisconsin--Madison

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37871.v1

Version V1 ()

  • V7 [2024-05-08]
  • V6 [2024-03-19] unpublished
  • V5 [2024-01-15] unpublished
  • V4 [2023-01-25] unpublished
  • V3 [2022-04-12] unpublished
  • V2 [2020-11-16] unpublished
  • V1 [2020-11-03] unpublished

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Additional information about this collection can be found in Version History.

2020-11-03 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Household Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life

The overall goal of the Baby's First Years project is to provide the first definitive understanding of the extent to which household income plays a causal role in affecting children's cognitive, socio-emotional, and brain development early in life for children born into low-income families. Some 1,000 mothers of infants with incomes below the federal poverty line were recruited in four diverse U.S. communities between May 2018 and June 2019. All are receiving monthly cash gifts via disbursement on a debit card for the first 40 months of the child's life. Parents in the high cash gift group (n=400) are receiving a cash gift of $333 per month ($4,000 per year), whereas parents in the low cash gift group (n=600) are receiving a cash gift of $20 per month ($240 per year).

In order to understand the impacts of the unconditional cash gift on children's cognitive and behavioral development, the researchers will assess high and low cash gift group differences at age 3 (and, for a subset of measures, ages 1 and 2) on measures of cognitive, language, memory, self-regulation, and socio-emotional development. To understand how family economic behavior, parenting, and parent stress and well-being change in response to the cash gift, the researchers will examine high and low cash gift group differences in family expenditures, food insecurity, housing and neighborhood quality; family routines and time use; parent stress, mental health and cognition; parenting practices; and child care arrangements at child ages 1 and 2. Our four data collection points are referred to as: "Baseline", "Age 1", "Age 2", and "Age 3". The current collection includes data and related materials regarding study design from the Baseline data collection.

Additional information on the project, survey design, sample, and variables are available from:

  • The User Guide, which is included in this collection under the "Data and Documentation" tab
  • The project's website: babysfirstyears.com

The researchers request that all peer-reviewed papers using BFY Data:

  • be submitted to PubMed https://publicaccess.nih.gov immediately upon acceptance for publication
  • include the following citation to the data in their bibliography:

Citation

Magnuson, K., Noble, K.G., Duncan, G., Fox, N.A., Gennetian, L.A., and Yoshikawa, H. Baby's First Years (BFY). Baseline Public Data, 2018-2019. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-11-03. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37871

  • include the following acknowledgement:

Acknowledgement

This research uses data from the Baby's First Years study. Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HD087384 and by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation; Annie E. Casey Foundation; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Brady Education Fund; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Silicon Valley Community Foundation); Child Welfare Fund; Ford Foundation; Greater New Orleans Foundation; Heising-Simons Foundation; Jacobs Foundation; JPB Foundation; Louisiana Foundation; New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity; Perigee Fund; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Sherwood Foundation; Valhalla Charitable Foundation; Weitz Family Foundation; W.K. Kellogg Foundation; and three anonymous donors.

Principal Investigators

Katherine Magnuson, PhD; University of Wisconsin-Madison, lead PI social and behavioral science

Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD; Teachers College, Columbia University, lead PI neuroscience

In alphabetical order:

Greg Duncan, PhD; University of California, Irvine

Nathan A. Fox, PhD; University of Maryland

Lisa A. Gennetian, PhD; Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy

Hirokazu Yoshikawa, PhD; New York University

Principal Investigators of Qualitative Substudy

Sarah Halpern-Meekin, PhD; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Katherine Magnuson, PhD; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Study Management

Lauren Meyer, Teachers College, Columbia University; National Project Director

Andrea Karsh, University of California, Irvine; Administrative Director

Study Co-Investigators

Sarah Black, PhD; University of New Orleans

William Fifer, PhD; Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Columbia University Medical Center

Michael Georgieff, MD; University of Minnesota

Joseph Isler, PhD; Columbia University Medical Center

Connie Lamm, PhD; University of Arkansas

Dennis Molfese, PhD; University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Victoria Molfese, PhD; University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Jennifer Mize Nelson, PhD; University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Timothy Nelson, PhD; University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Sonya Troller-Renfree, PhD; Teachers College, Columbia University

Study Data Collectors

Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a contract from the University of California, Irvine, running from September 2017 through July 2022. SRC data collection operations are overseen by: Stephanie Chardoul, Director of Survey Research Operations and Piotr Dworak, Senior Survey Specialist, Survey Research Operations.

Contact

To contact the study investigators, email them at info@babysfirstyears.com

Website: babysfirstyears.com

Magnuson, Katherine A., Noble, Kimberly, Duncan, Greg J., Fox, Nathan A., Gennetian, Lisa A., Yoshikawa, Hirokazu, and Halpern-Meekin, Sarah. Baby’s First Years (BFY), New York City, New Orleans, Omaha, and Twin Cities, 2018-2019. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-11-03. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37871.v1

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United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD087384), United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (RHD087384A), Annie E. Casey Foundation (214.0183), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1185312), Brady Education Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Silicon Valley Community Foundation) (2017-177918), Child Welfare Fund (13-1624202), Ford Foundation (0170-0832), Greater New Orleans Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation (542569), Jacobs Foundation (102535), JPB Foundation (1132), Louisiana Foundation, New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity, Perigee Fund, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (75592), Sherwood Foundation (4288), Valhalla Charitable Foundation, Weitz Family Foundation, W. K. Kellogg Foundation (P3031579), Three anonymous donors

City

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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2018-05-01 -- 2019-06-30
2018-05-01 -- 2019-06-30
  1. Please see the User Guide, located under the "Data and Documentation" tab, for technical details and other characteristics of the data collection, including measures taken to maintain participant confidentiality.

  2. All papers resulting from the use of Baby's First Years data must be submitted to PubMed upon acceptance for publication. Publications must include the study citation and acknowledgment as worded in the Summary.

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The overall goal of the Baby's First Years project is to provide the first definitive understanding of the extent to which household income plays a causal role in affecting children's cognitive, socio-emotional, and brain development early in life for children born into low-income families. Recent advances in developmental neuroscience suggest that experiences early in life have profound and enduring influences on the developing brain. Family economic resources shape the nature of many of these experiences, yet the extent to which they affect children's development is unknown. The Baby's First Years project is designed to fill important gaps in scientific knowledge about the role of economic resources in early development.

The Baby's First Years project is a randomized controlled trial that will estimate the causal impacts of unconditional cash gift payments on the cognitive, socio-emotional, and brain development of infants and toddlers in low-income U.S. families. Mothers of infants with incomes below the federal poverty line from four diverse U.S. communities (New York City, NY; New Orleans, LA; Omaha, NE; and Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN) were recruited after giving birth at one of 12 hospitals across the four study sites. Screener and baseline interviews were administered verbally at the respondent's hospital bedside, with responses recoded by the interviewer on a laptop computer.

Mothers who agreed to participate in the study will receive monthly cash payments for the first 40 months of the child's life. Mothers were randomly assigned to high and low cash gift groups. The high cash gift group mothers (n=400) received $333 per month, while the low cash gift group mothers (n=600) received $20 per month. Quantitative data are collected at four points: baseline after child is born, at one year old, two years old, and three years old.

At follow-ups for years 1 and 2, mothers will be invited to participate in an at-home visit. The year 3 follow-up will take place at local university settings. All consent forms and data collection instruments will be available on the study website: babysfirstyears.com.

Between May 2018 and June 2019, 1,003 mothers with incomes below the poverty threshold in four metropolitan areas in the United States were recruited in 12 hospitals shortly after giving birth. "Recruited" here means that they were judged to be eligible based on the information they provided in the screening interview, consented to and were administered a baseline interview, and were offered and agreed to receive a debit card with the monthly cash gift deposit. Three mothers subsequently declined further participation in the study.

The intention was to recruit 250 mother/infant dyads in each of the four sites. Due to a number of IRB and other hospital-related recruiting challenges, the sample is distributed as follows: 121 mother-infant pairs in MN, 295 in LA, 295 in NE, and 289 in NY.

Longitudinal

Mothers of infants with incomes below the federal poverty line from four diverse U.S. communities (New York City, NY; New Orleans, LA; Omaha, NE; and Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN) who gave birth at one of 12 hospitals across the study sites during the baseline data collection period.

Individual, Household, Other

Baseline measures include newborn birth weight; mother and biological father race, ethnicity, education level, and relationship status; maternal work history before and after pregnancy; child care assistance; a household roster with demographics for all adults and children (relationship to respondent, age, sex, contribution to household income); income and net worth; maternal mental health; neighborhood safety; social services receipt; and use of alcohol and cigarettes before and during pregnancy.

During data collections for Age 1, Age 2, and Age 3, mother-focused measures will include: household economic hardship, social services receipt, labor market and education participation, expenditures for child, housing and neighborhoods, family and maternal perceived stress, happiness and optimism, physiological stress, mental resources, physical and mental health, substance abuse, chaos in the home, relationships, parent-child interaction quality, epigenetic age, DNA methylation, frequency of parent-child activity, and discipline. Child-focused measures vary across waves but will include: language development, executive function and self-regulation, socio-emotional processing, IQ, brain function, health (BMI, physiological stress, sleep, etc.), epigenetic age and DNA methylation, and school achievement and behavior.

The construction of the sample is represented in the Consort diagram (Appendix Figure 1) in the User Guide. Its complicated nature precludes a simple response rate calculation, so instead a full description is presented. A total of 13,482 mothers who had given birth in the maternity ward at one of the study recruitment hospitals were identified for assessment of study eligibility and 8,243 were assessed through a Screener interview. Some 6,839 did not meet the inclusion criteria (described below), 341 did not sign consent forms, and 12 did not start the baseline interview for other reasons. Both the Screener and Baseline interviews were administered verbally at the respondent's hospital bedside, with responses record by the interviewer on a laptop computer. Baseline interview data were obtained from 1,051 mothers. After completing this interview, mothers were offered and asked to agree to receiving cash gifts of unspecified monthly amounts "from charitable foundations that want to help support families with new babies".

Of the 1,051 mothers who completed the baseline interview, 47 mothers did not agree to receive the gift and an additional mother refused to provide any contact information for follow-up and therefore was not offered the cash gift. The remaining 1,003 accepted the cash gifts and were randomized into the high or low cash gift groups. Of the 1,003 mothers who were randomized by site, 3 mothers were excluded because they notified the interviewer within a few days after completing the baseline interview that they wanted to withdraw from the study, and had not spent any of the money on their debit cards.

The result is a sample of 1,000 mothers. The n=1,000 sample is referred to in this documentation as the target sample.

The baseline data collection included one scale - the CES-D index for maternal depression [Cole, J. C., Rabin, A. S., Smith, T. L., and Kaufman, A. S. (2004). Development and validation of a Rasch-derived CES-D short form. Psychological assessment, 16(4), 360]. All scales used for outcomes at ages 1 through 3 are listed in Appendix Tables 1 and 2 in the User Guide. Please refer to the User Guide and P.I. Codebook, available under the "Data and Documentation" tab, for details.

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2020-11-03

2020-11-03 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Hide

There was no oversampling of population subgroups and assignment to cash gift group was predetermined by an algorithm embedded in the computer-assisted interview software. Thus, no weighting is necessary to obtain Intent-To-Treat estimates for births to low-income women in the twelve hospitals distributed across four sites. The timing of interviewer shifts in the 12 hospitals was based on administrative convenience rather than any attempt to obtain a formal population sample from the hospitals. The random nature of births across interviewer shifts contributes to the population diversity of the sample.

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