Using Structured Video Chat to Improve Relationships Between Young Children and Remote Grandparents
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT06071832. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic many families are using video chat (e.g., Zoom) to maintain relationships with distant relatives, including grandparents. While 67% of all grandparents reported liking the idea of video chatting with their grandchildren, only 28% did so regularly. Increasing this percentage could significantly improve grandparent-grandchild relationships because the Preliminary Study 1 showed that video chat frequency is a strong predictor of grandparent's ratings of closeness to their grandchild, even after controlling for the geographic distance between them. The overall goal of the past, ongoing, and future research is to understand the cognitive and social developmental challenges of video chat in order to support its use with children. As the next step towards this goal, the investigators propose to directly compare two approaches to instructing grandparents on how to improve video chats between grandparents and young grandchildren (18-72 months of age). Families will use video chat without the involvement of researchers during each video chat. Parent-child- grandparent triads (n=180; the largest multi-session observational study of young children and video chat to date) will record 10 video chats under one of three randomly-assigned conditions: structured play, structured reading, or when given no instructions (control). The overall hypothesis is that structured video chat will increase children's engagement and joint attention (primary outcome measures), as well as grandparents' enjoyment of video chat and closeness with their grandchild (secondary outcome measures). The investigators will use detailed behavioral coding of the video recordings of these chats to objectively assess many of the outcome measures. The Preliminary Study 2 showed that structured video chat facilitates more positive social interactions. The proposed work extends the preliminary work because it translates laboratory methods to a complementary ecologically-valid approach in families' naturalistic environments. In Aim 1, the investigators will determine whether and for whom structured video chat improves child engagement and increases child-initiated screen- based joint attention during video chats between grandparents and grandchildren. In Aim 2, the investigators will determine whether structured video chat increases grandparents' enjoyment of the video chats and leads to greater feelings of closeness to their grandchild. Both principal investigators, who are at R15-eligible institutions, are well-qualified to complete the proposed work. Since 2017, they have published 9 papers on video chat, 12 papers on reading, and collaboratively completed 3 preliminary studies and 2 papers. They have mentored 77 undergraduate students, many of whom were co-authors on conference posters or presentations (37 students in total; 22 as a presenter) or journal articles. Importantly, 17 students came from underrepresented groups (BIPOC, first- generation in college, LGBT). A total of 47 are pursuing or have completed graduate work in health-related sciences, including 15 for doctoral degrees. The proposed work addresses a National Institute for Child Health \& Development, Child Development and Behavior Branch's (CDBB) priority of advancing understanding of "Effects of Technology and Digital Media Use on Child and Adolescent Development."
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT06071832
- Recruitment status
- Active, not recruiting
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 540 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Months to 5 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Oct 31, 2022
- Primary completion
- Aug 31, 2025
- Completion
- Aug 31, 2025
- Last update posted
- Mar 4, 2025
2022 – 2025
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lafayette College | Easton | Pennsylvania | 18042 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT06071832, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Mar 4, 2025 · Synced Sep 4, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT06071832 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.