Externalizing disorders, including behaviors such as tantrums, defiance, and aggression, are among the most common and costly disorders of childhood. Behavioral indicators of these disorders often emerge by the third year of life, but current methods of identifying them are often time-intensive and expensive. This pilot study uses wearable technology to sense daily activities such as child hyperactivity and tantrums, caregiver warmth and harshness, or child and caregiver play over time, which can help families and researchers understand more about moment-to-moment interactions and how they might affect child development and child and parental mental health. By recruiting participants from Federally-Qualified Health Centers and Federally-Subsidized Child Care centers, the team is intentionally including lower-income families who have been historically underrepresented in this type of research.
Progress and Results: The team adapted the study protocol to allow families to sign up remotely in light of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 30 families have joined the study so far. The team hopes to be able to develop summaries of daily activity that could provide innovative low-burden assessments, allowing interventions to reach more families at risk. Additionally, markers of daily activity can be incorporated into personalized “just-in-time” interventions, where tailored content is delivered when it is most useful.
Team Members
Kaya de Barbaro
Edison Thomaz
Hannah Williamson
Select Publications
“Leveraging wearable sensors to capture activity ‘in the wild.’ Feasibility in Parent Child Samples” Preprint: https://psyarxiv.com/u39xg