Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Infant Assessment Unit, 1994-2001

The second study used a longitudinal cohort study of seven randomly selected cohorts of children, adolescents, and young adults to look at the changing circumstances of their lives and the personal characteristics that may lead them towards or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. PHDCN is organized as five components: 1) Longitudinal study with an embedded intensive study of infants; 2) Community survey; 3) an Observational study of neighborhoods; 4) a Neighborhood expert survey; and 5) Administrative data.

Neighborhoods were operationally defined as 343 clusters of city blocks from Chicago's 847 populated census tracts. The purpose of the Infant Assessment Unit wave of data collection was to include the youngest Project cohort by examining the "effects of prenatal and early postnatal risk conditions on health and cognitive functioning in the first year of life," and to "establish links between early developmental processes and the onset of antisocial behavior in the preschool period or in the earliest years of regular school and to measures the strength of this developmental pathway." Infants received an additional assessment at 6 months.

Measures assessed visual recognition and memory, physical health and birth complications, temperament, and family environment. Videotaped records were used to record the response of the infant to different types of stimulation, as well as to capture interactions between the parent and infant to determine empathic responsiveness of the parent, encouragement and guidance, and overall psychopathology. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (videotape data).

If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data.