If you or your partner are expecting or recently had a baby, we are inviting you to participate in our online study that will help us to understand the physical, psychological and social impacts of COVID-19 on expectant and new parents, and how young infants are affected by changes in the way that we interact with others.
Any member of the family can complete this questionnaire – and we highly encourage fathers to take part!
What is the purpose of this study?
COVID-19 has affected our lives in many ways. Many of us will have been affected emotionally, financially, medically and socially. We have had to change the way we work, how much time we spend at home, and how we socialise with friends and family. There have also been changes to the availability of social support networks such as antenatal or mum and baby groups, and health services such as GP appointments and routine health checks.
The purpose of this study is to understand the physical, psychological and social impacts of COVID-19 on expectant and new parents, and how young infants are affected by changes in the way that we interact with others. As well as being interested in how the COVID-19 public health challenge is affecting life now, we would also like to understand how the effects change over time, gathering information from families at four stages of the parenting journey:
- during the second trimester of pregnancy
- during the third trimester of pregnancy
- when baby is 0-3 months
- when baby is 3-6 months
For this reason you will be given the choice of completing the questionnaire just once (for whichever stage of the parenting journey you’re currently at), or completing it both now, and then again in each of the stages that follow (up to 4 times, depending on which stage you are in when you first take part) so that we can see how your responses change over the four stages. The questionnaires at each stage are similar, but are tailored to be relevant to the stage you are at.
What will the study involve?
The study involves completing a questionnaire online which will take around 30 minutes. The study is open to both mothers and fathers. The questionnaire will automatically be tailored to your stage of pregnancy or the age of your infant.
Once you have completed the questionnaire you will be asked if you would be interested in completing the study again when you reach the next stage in the parenting journey. If you decide that you only want to complete the questionnaire once, then we will not collect any personally identifiable information from you and your participation will be complete. We will only collect the personally identifiable information from you that you consent to from the following three options:
- If you are interested in taking part again in the future, we will ask you to provide your email
address. We will then contact you when you reach the next stage that we are interested in and ask you to complete the questionnaire again. Depending on your stage of pregnancy/age of your infant when you first complete the questionnaire, we may ask you to complete the questionnaire up to three more times. Whether you fill in the questionnaire once, twice, three times or at all four stages, your data will be extremely useful to us and we are very grateful for your participation. - Each time you complete the questionnaire you will be given the opportunity to be entered into a prize draw for £100 in gift card vouchers. If you want to be entered into the prize draw you will be asked to provide your email address at the end of the questionnaire.
- If you are interested in being sent information about the findings from this study.
For more information, please see our Participant Information Sheet.
If you are interested in helping us with our research then please complete the questionnaire here. If you have any questions, please email our Project Coordinator, Ezra, or the Cambridge Babylab (babylab@psychol.cam.ac.uk).
