Forming Habit(us): A Video-Ethnography of Everyday Interactions Inside 21 American Families

这个项目的目的是通过家庭录像来研究来自不同社会阶层背景的家庭如何培养孩子的早期生活技能、态度和期望。有大量证据表明，儿童幼年时期的重要性和父母养育在塑造幼儿技能发展方面的力量。每年，美国投资数十亿美元用于支持父母的计划，包括通过父母教育课程，育儿支持和家访计划。制定更好地满足家庭日常需求并反映其知识和专长的育儿举措，需要更深入地了解儿童的生活环境。这项关于亲子互动的家庭视频研究是对家庭如何支持孩子早期学习的前所未有的研究。这项研究的数据来自于对21个家庭的为期两周的家庭视频民族志研究，每个家庭都有一个2-4岁的孩子。 这些数据通过多步骤流程进行分析，包括完成每日和主题内容日志，撰写叙述性摘要和备忘录，以及选择剧集进行更深入的分析。该项目的成果包括丰富的日常描述，在现场的父母的做法，年轻的家庭，学龄前儿童，和新的措施，父母的行为和新的概念，将在未来的研究进行测试。 这些成果将加强公众对家庭日常成就和他们在支持年幼子女方面所面临挑战的讨论。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The objective of this project is to examine through in-home video footage how families from different social class backgrounds develop early-life skills, attitudes, and expectations in their children. There is overwhelming evidence of the importance of children’s earliest years and the power of parenting in shaping young children’s skill development. Each year, the United States invests billions of dollars into programs to support parents including through parent education classes, parenting supports, and home visitation programs. Developing parenting initiatives that better address families’ daily needs and reflect their knowledge and expertise requires a deeper understanding of the circumstances of children’s lives. This in-home video study of parent-child interactions is an unprecedented examination of how families support their children’s early learning.Data for this study come from 5,700 hours of video footage contained in 463,000 discrete video clips, from a two-week in-home video-ethnographic study of 21 families, each with a child aged 2-4. These data are analyzed through a multi-step process that includes completing daily and thematic content logs, writing narrative summaries and memos, and selecting episodes for closer analysis. Outcomes of the project include rich descriptions of the everyday, in-situ parenting practices of families with young, preschool-aged children, and new measures of parenting behaviors and new concepts to be tested in future studies. These outcomes will enhance public conversations concerning families’ daily accomplishments and their challenges in supporting their young children.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.