An exploratory approach to defining and measuring child health and well-being with parents and grandparents

Abstract

The study engaged parents and grandparents to define child health and well-being in their local context, develop domains, and provide input on appropriate measures. Methods: We employed an exploratory methodological approach that builds off a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodology. Parents and grandparents defined child health and well-being using PhotoVoice methodology; outlined key domains together during focus group sessions; and reviewed measures identified by the research team for construct and face validity. Results: Ten parents and grandparents, living in an overburdened and under-resourced community in New York City, were recruited for this study. They defined child health and well-being in terms of three domains: Safety, Love, and Equity. The research team identified three candidate measures that have been developed with or widely used with children from a similar racial and ethnic background as the children from this community. Results showed adequate face validity for each of the three measures and for both English- and Spanish-speaking parents and grandparents. While overall the measures will address the domains they identified, there are some modifications to wording that will be needed before implementing the measures in the community. Conclusions: We found a paucity of child health and well-being measures developed explicitly for and validated with African American and Latinx young children living in low-income urban environments. Therefore, the field needs more validation studies and new measures designed with and for populations from different cultural backgrounds, particularly for younger children.