Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study

The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) is a longitudinal birth cohort study of American children in urban areas, run by Princeton University and Columbia University. It uses a stratified random sample technique and an oversample of non-marital births. Baseline data collection ran from 1998–2000, with interviews with both biological parents shortly after the child’s birth. Follow-up interviews were conducted when the child was one, three, five, and nine years old. Fifteen year interviews began in February 2014.

In addition to parent interviews, the years three, five, and nine included in-home assessments, child care or teacher assessments, and interviews with the child. Core aims of the study are to learn about capabilities and relationships of unmarried parents, and how families and children fare on various health and social measures over time.

Children in the FFCWS were born in hospitals in 20 large cities across the United States. These cities were selected for diversity in child support enforcement, labor market conditions, and welfare generosity. Within each city, hospitals were sampled and births were sampled in each hospital. The study design called for an over-sample of births to unmarried couples.

Thus, although non-marital births accounted for only a third of U.S. births at the time the study began, they make up around three-quarters of the Fragile Families sample. The FFCWS public data files include weights for each wave of data collection that can be used to make the sample representative of urban births nationwide.

The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study was designed primarily to address four questions of great interest to researchers and policy makers: (1) What are the conditions and capabilities of unmarried parents, especially fathers?; (2) What is the nature of the relationships between unmarried parents?; (3) How do children born into these families fare?; and (4) How do policies and environmental conditions affect families and children?

Some of the major topic areas covered are as follows:

Baseline data collection consisted of an in-person interview with the biological mother and biological fathers, usually at the hospital shortly after the child’s birth. Medical records for the mother and infant were also collected when possible.

At the one-year survey wave, the parents were each interviewed by telephone.

When the child was three, the parents were interviewed again by telephone. There was also a visit to where the child lives and an in-person interview with the child’s primary caregiver, usually the mother. The child and mother completed cognitive assessments and their heights and weights were collected. The interviewer also gathered observational data on the home environment, appearance and behaviors of the family, and the neighborhood. In 10 of the 20 cities, the child care setting was also observed and the non-parental caretaker completed a survey.

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