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

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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.