The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Birth Cohort Study (FFCWS) is following a stratified, multistate probability sample of approximately 4,900 children born in large US cities (populations of 200,000 or more) between 1998 and 2000. Interviews were conducted with mothers and fathers at birth and again when children were 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years old. Children were assessed/interviewed at ages 3, 5, 9, and 15. The parent grant for this Administrative Supplement facilitates another round of FFCWS interviews focused on outcomes for the focal children as young adults, at age 22.

The parent grant includes interviews with the FFCWS young adults and complementary interviews with the person who was the young adult’s primary caregiver (PCG) at the time of the Year 15 interview, providing contextual and triangulated information about the young adults’ experiences. The specific aims of the parent grant are to:

1. collect new data on the health and wellbeing of FFCWS young adults
2. collect new data on the social, economic, and physical environments of FFCWS young adults, and
3. collect saliva samples from FFCWS young adults to be used to measure DNA methylation and telomere length.

Due to the widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, supplementary data collection is necessary to address the parent grant’s specific aims 1 and 2. The pandemic and related social and economic conditions directly affect the central domains about which the parent grant collects new data, specifically the health, wellbeing, and social, economic, and physical environments of FFCWS young adults. Because these young adults are disproportionately Black (49%) and Latinx (25%), and part of immigrant (13%) and low-income (59% below 200% federal poverty line (FPL)) families, they may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.