Join the study!

Participants are still being sought to help us with this important and ground-breaking study of family life in the new millenium. At the present time, we are concentrating on bringing families into the project who have:

1. a first-born son or daughter who is now 12 months old, or who will turn 12 months of age before June, 2002; or
2. a second-born child who is now 12 months old, or who will turn 12 months by June 2002, and a first-born child age four years old, or younger.

3. Participant families will visit Clark's family study center three times during the weeks surrounding the baby's first birthday, at times mutually convenient for the family and our staff (see the 12 month visits page for a description of the activities in which families take part). Then, 18 months later, when the baby approaches his or her 30-month birthday, three more visits will be scheduled, again at mutually convenient times (see the 30-month visits page). Visiting with families at these two important milestone ages for children helps us to answer such questions as:

   1. Which features of family life undergo major transformations as children move from infancy into the toddler years, and which remain relatively constant.
   2. How do different patterns of family interaction at 12 months-between mothers and children, fathers and children, husbands and wives, or babies and siblings - shape the future family process at 30 months?
   3. Which aspects of family life at 12 months prove to be the best predictors of different child competencies and habits at 30 months?

All families who take part in the project receive:

• Summaries of our visits with the children at both 12 and 30 months, describing our impressions;
• Copies of all published journal articles describing findings from the project;
• A small honorarium payment at each assessment period; and
• A copy of the book "Charting the Bumpy Road of Coparenthood", due out in the year 2005 after all information from the "Families through Time" study is in and collated. The book, which will be written for a lay audience, will chronicle the lives of the families in our study and describe the myriad adaptations that families made in shaping their life together as a family.

We invite you, or those you know who are eligible for the study, to contact us today to register! Just complete the information form on the Contact page of our website, or call us directly at 508-793-7105. We hope to hear from you!