Partnering with Parents on Research that Makes a Difference for Families

The field of Early Relational Health (ERH) is singularly poised to promote the well-being of the American family, by embedding a strengths-based approach to early childhood development into universal pediatric care.

Yet currently, the field faces a critical gap between generating research on early relationships—and translating that science into actionable interventions that concretely impact outcomes in child health and development. 

As the scientific hub for the field of ERH, the Center for Early Relational Health is working to bridge that gap, toward a future where families and pediatricians have the tools they need to help every child thrive. 

To accomplish this mission, the Center has partnered with key field-building organizations Nurture Connection and Reach Out and Read. Together, we’re committed to putting parents at the center of this work: building families’ lived experiences into the very foundations of the most comprehensive ERH research in the nation. 

We’re deeply listening, fine-tuning our work to more authentically represent the voices and perspectives of the families we seek to serve. This partnership with parents is a bold step toward generating data that is more precise, accurate and, crucially, actionable.

Our first significant project together, 3 years in the making, is a key initiative to innovate new ways of looking at and understanding early relationships. 

How Can We Truly Understand the Science of Relationships?

“There are lots of different ways to look at early childhood relationships," says Dr. Dani Dumitriu, pediatrician, neuroscientist, and Director of the Center for Early Relational Health. “We have all these ERH constructs out there developed by researchers, like bonding, attachment, and emotional connection. But what other constructs might emerge through listening deeply to parents? This step is essential in our work to build the evidence base for the field of ERH; it’s about how rigorous research can center parents. Because we can’t expect to meaningfully change things for families, no matter how badly we want to, until we take a step back and really listen to what they have to say.”

“That’s why we’ve invested so much time over the past three years together, collectively exploring how best to incorporate parent voice into our work,” says Dr. Nikki Shearman, Chief of Research and Innovation at Reach Out and Read (who leads the implementation arm of our COMBO National pilot). “Incorporating parents into a research project like this is relatively new, and we've had to learn how to meaningfully do it again and again—including listening to parents telling us how to do it.”

Collaborating with Parents to Learn Deeply About Early Relationships 

So how has the Center integrated parent voices into rigorous scientific research? 

Together with Nikki, we first spent 6 months developing an interview guide in partnership with parent leaders from Nurture Connection’s Family Network Collaborative. These parents, from communities all across the country, described core aspects of their experiences of ERH: their own childhoods, their relationships with their children now, key moments of connection, and much more. Through these deep conversations, we collaborated on identifying and understanding the language parents actually use to talk about relationships with their kids and their families.

We did extensive work together reviewing the interview guide and steering the questions away from academic language. In fact, we often landed on language that academics wouldn’t have even thought of! That’s why community-focused research is so important: by using this methodology, we’re finding things about early relationships that others haven’t found—because we’ve included parents as partners in the work.

Parent leaders then went into their own communities to interview other parents about their ERH experiences—at home, at the pediatrician’s office, and out in the world. 

“This aspect was crucial, and pretty rare in academic research,” Dani says. “We gave up the right to interview the parents ourselves, in order to ensure the most authentic conversations about early relational health in the real world. We’re taking this research outside of the academic sphere and into lived experiences, to see if there are ERH lenses we may not have considered—but that give us crucial insights into the relationships so vital to children’s lifelong development and parents’ well-being.”

Because the interviews were conducted exclusively by parent leaders, we scientists have no way of identifying the parents they talked to. That aspect of anonymity is absolutely essential in getting rigorous, unbiased data. 

Nikki is equally proud of this iterative, real-world research: “Each time we do this, we learn more, and we do it better,” she says. “For example, this time around, we included transcription of the interviews (where previously, we had somebody taking notes). This way, these families’ voices can more accurately be portrayed, and our research data will more accurately reflect their experiences.”

What’s Next for this Trailblazing Partnership?

We’re excited to be in the process of analyzing the de-identified transcripts of these interviews, so we can build firsthand parent perspectives into the way we study and support ERH. 

It’s too early to share findings, but we’re already starting to see some unique results, because of the way parents helped design the interview questions, and because the interviews themselves were parents-only. We can’t wait to share what we learn, as we take a significant step closer to developing novel ways of understanding and promoting early relationships. 

While research has historically been largely siloed in academia, the future of science that makes an impact is partnership with the populations we study. The Center’s pioneering partnerships with parents, Reach Out and Read, and Nurture Connection take this vital science directly into the communities we seek to serve, to close the gap between research and practice, and promote universal strengths-based ERH for families nationwide.

Want to Learn More?

• See 10 of the Center for ERH’s most important findings so far, including key takeaways for parents and young children!

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You’re Invited!

• Save the date for our 5th annual COMBO Playdate: a free block party for families in NYC. Join us Sunday, May 3rd, 2026!