Zoomers and Boomers: Grandparenting in the Digital Age

In an era of social distancing, how do parents, grandparents, and infants keep in touch with each other? For example, how does your new grandbaby respond when you play peek-a-boo over FaceTime? The Video Chat Project is a three part research study aiming to characterize how infants, toddlers, and preschoolers make and maintain relationships through video chat, specifically with their grandparents.

Piper, D., Malik, S., Badger, A-N., Washington, C., Valle, B., Strouse, G. A., Myers, L. J., McClure, E., Troseth, G. L., Zosh, J. M., & Barr, R. (2023). Sharing culture in a tech world: Grandparent–grandchild cultural exchanges over video chat. Translational Issues in Psychological Science.

Strouse, G.A., McClure, E., Myers, L.J., Zosh, J.M., Troseth, G.L., Blanchfield, O., Roche, E., Malik, S., Barr, R. (2021). Zooming through development: Using video chat to support family connections. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 1-20.

Roche, E., Rocha‐Hidalgo, J., Piper, D., Strouse, G. A., Neely, L. I., Ryu, J., Myers, L. J., McClure, E., Troseth, G. L., Zosh, J. M., & Barr, R. (2022). Presence at a distance: Video chat supports intergenerational sensitivity and positive infant affect during COVID‐19. Infancy, 27(6), 1008–1031. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12491

Barr, R., Blanchfield, O., McClure, E., Roche, E., Zosh, J.M., Strouse, G.A., Troseth, G.L., Myers, L.J. (2020). Virtual Family Time: How Families Connect via Video Chat. ZERO TO THREE Journal, 21-29.

McClure, E., Chentsova-Dutton, Y., Holochwost, S., Parrott, W., Barr, R. (2020). Infant emotional engagement in face-to-face and video chat interactions with their mothers. Enfance, 3(3), 353-374.

McClure, E., Chentsova- Dutton, Y., Barr, R., Holochwost, S., Parrott, G. (2016). “Facetime doesn’t count”: Video chat an exception to media restrictions for infants and toddlers. International Journal of Child- Computer Interaction, 6, 1-6.

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