Provider’s interviewer and main study contact should begin.
Hello, and thank you for meeting with me again! With me today is [NAME], who is also part of the study team. There are two main purposes to this call. First, we want to make sure you received your study phone and charger, show you how to use the phone to complete the photo and audio journal activities we discussed, talk about what kinds of entries we are asking you to submit, and see if you have any questions. Second, we want to talk about what we’d like you to do to ask permission from family members for their children to possibly appear in a photo, what to do to ask permission from family and community members to be contacted for an interview, and how to send that information back to us. This call could take up to 1 hour, depending on your experience with Android phones; we’ll try to keep it shorter if we can. As with our other calls with you, your participation is completely up to you and voluntary. We will keep your participation private, and we will only use your responses for research purposes and in ways that will not reveal who you are. Finally, because this is a federally funded study, I want to tell you that an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB number for this collection is 0970-xxxx and the expiration date is xx/xx/xxxx. Do you have any questions before we get started?
First, can you please confirm that you received the study phone and charger?
If they have NOT received the phone yet, let them know that you will look into it. Confirm or ask about any issues with their ability to receive FedEx deliveries, and schedule a new call once they’ve received their phone. Then, thank them again and hang up.
If they have received the phone, continue.
I am glad you received the package! Now let’s go through the paper documents that we sent you with the phone [ask them to actually look at the documents while you talk]. We also sent you a “Study Phone, EthOS, and Zoom Guide” and a document called “Photo and Audio Journal Information”—do you see those? Next, there should be a small card with your name, a username, and password on it, and a one-page document called “Information about HBCC P&E Study Phones for Providers”–confirm they have that. Next, there is a one-page flyer titled, “Do you help out families by taking care of children in your own home for at least 15 hours per week?,” which has some overall information about the study, and a document titled, “Information about Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences (HBCC P&E) Study Activities for Providers,” which has the consent language that we read at the start of our first interview. Now please look for the 10 copies each of the “Family Consent Form for HBCC P&E Study Photos” (GREEN PAPER), “Family Contact Form for HBCC P&E Study Interviews,” and a study flyer for family members (GREEN PAPER). Also, there should be 5 copies of another study flyer for community members (BLUE PAPER) and a document titled, “Provider Log of Community Member Contact Information for HBCC P&E Study Interviews” (BLUE PAPER). Finally, there should be a FedEx envelope for you to use when you are done.
Photos and Audio Journals Overview. As we discussed, we are asking you to do two kinds of tasks over the next 4 weeks. One is to take two photos each week of your day-to-day life as a caregiver. The other task is to record two audio journal entries each week where you will record your stories and reflections about the care you offer children and families. Our call today is to make sure that you feel comfortable with what to do for each of these tasks and with the study phone that you will use to complete these tasks. The study phone we sent you has an app on it called EthOS that is designed so people who are participating in studies, like you, can complete these kinds of photo and audio journal tasks. The EthOS app lets you automatically share your photos and audio recordings with the study team. [NAME] will walk you through how to use the study phone with this app.
Family and Community Member Permissions Overview. Before we take out the phone, I want to describe the steps we will ask you to take to make sure the parents of the children in your care are aware of the study and agree to having you take photos while their children are in your care. We will also walk through how to ask families if they would be willing to participate in a 1-hour interview as part of the study. Finally, we will also talk about how to ask a few of the people who give you information and support–who we refer to as community members–if they would be willing to participate in a one-half hour interview as part of the study.
Lets’ talk about the family members first. In the FedEx package please look at the stapled packet of the “Family Consent Form for HBCC P&E Study Photos,” the “Family Contact Form for HBCC P&E Study Interviews” for family members, and copies of a flyer explaining the study to family members. You may not need every copy; we just need one form per family. Please hand this packet out to the parents of the children in your care as soon as possible to inform them about this study and the photos you will be taking as part of it.
For the family consent form, if a parent says that they do not want you to take any photos of their child, please follow their request. Please do this before you start taking photos. You know your families best, so for some parents it might work well for you to explain the study and how you are contributing to it to them at drop off and pick up. Then you could ask them to sign the forms and leave them with you. Do you have any questions for me about getting permission and consent from parents?
Now let’s talk about the family member interviews. The family contact form is a way for the family member to give their permission for us to contact them for the interview. As I mentioned in our earlier calls, we’d like to talk to a family member—most likely parents or guardians–of the children you care for who are not your own children. The family members would be from different families and will need to be at least 18 years old. (If caring for one child, you can say we want to talk to a parent or guardian of that child.)
Our interviews with each family member will be 1 hour. Our conversations with them will be private, just like our conversations with you. We won’t tell them anything you told us, other than confirming basic information about your care arrangements for their child. That’s the only activity we would ask them to do for this study, and the family members will receive a $50 gift card for their participation.
It’s okay if a family member agrees to be contacted for the interview but does not want their child to be photographed, or vice versa–just separate the family consent and contact forms. Later in this phone call, we will show you how to send these forms back to us using the study phone we sent you. Please also keep hard copies since we’ll ask you to mail them back with the study phones when you’re done with the study.
(If caring for children from one or two families) For the family interview, once we receive the contact information from you, we will contact them to discuss the study and answer any questions they have, confirm their interest in participating, and then schedule the 1-hour interview with them. By sharing their contact information, they do not have to participate.
(If caring for children from more than two families) For the family interview, once we receive the contact information from you, we’ll select two family members. We will contact them to discuss the study and answer any questions they have, confirm their interest in participating, and then schedule the 1-hour interview with them. By sharing their contact information, they do not have to participate.
Please feel free to answer any questions the family members have about the interviews, since they might feel more comfortable talking with you first. But, please also let them know that when we talk to them, we can answer any questions they have.
We think it makes sense to give the families the family contact forms at the same as the family consent forms. Do you have any questions for me about these family member interviews?
Now let’s talk about the community member interviews. In our last call we talked about the people who offer you support and together we identified who might be contacted for an interview. [To interviewer: have names ready to remind provider about the discussion.] The FedEx package includes copies of flyers explaining the study to community members, plus a document titled, “Provider Log of Community Member Contact Information for HBCC P&E Study Interviews”. This form is a way for you to record who has given their permission for us to contact them for an interview and for you to share their contact information with us. We’d like to talk to one community member who offers you support or information about child care. The community member will need to be at least 18 years old.
Our interview with this person would be 30 minutes. Our conversation with them will be private, just like our conversations with you. We won’t tell them anything you told us, other than confirming basic information about the support they provide you. That’s the only activity we would ask them to do for this study, and the community member will receive a $25 gift card for their participation.
Once we receive the contact information from you, we’ll select a community member. We will contact them to discuss the study and answer any questions they have, confirm their interest in participating, and then schedule the half-hour interview with them. By sharing their contact information, they do not have to participate. As with the family members, feel free to answer any questions the community members have about the interviews, but let them know that when we talk to them we can answer any questions they have.
Next, we’ll walk you through the package you received where you will find the community member flyers and the forms we’ve been talking about. Please share the flyer with them in the next couple of weeks and ask for their permission to share their contact information with us. We will show you how to send their contact information back to us using the study phone we sent you.
Study team member with EthOS experience takes over here.
Now, let’s talk about how to access the EthOS app. I recommend having the document titled, “Study Phone, EthOS, and Zoom Guide” handy while we walk through these steps. This document includes step-by-step instructions and screenshots on how to use the study phone and EthOS app. Do you have any experience using an Android phone?
To turn the study phone on, hold down on the power button on the right-hand side of the study phone until you see the screen light up. After a few seconds, you will be prompted to log in. The password for the study phone is Kitkat#9 (capital K-i-t-k-a-t-hashtag sign-number 9). The first “K” is capitalized, and everything else is lower case. The password is also highlighted in yellow on page 2 of the “Study Phone, EthOS, and Zoom Guide” under the “How to Operate your Phone” section. Were you able to turn the study phone on and enter the password successfully?
If no, help them get into the phone by repeating the password.
If yes, continue to the next step.
Now, you’ll notice that the Favorites bar at the bottom of the screen will have four apps: the phone app, the messaging app, EthOS, and Zoom. You can use the study phone and/or messaging apps to communicate with members of the study team, EthOS is the app you will use for completing your weekly photo and audio journal tasks, and Zoom is where you will complete your final interview after you finish your 4 weeks of photo and audio journal tasks.
As we discussed last time, this phone has software, called AirWatch, that we can use to track the location and remotely access the phone. However, we will only use it to help you locate the phone if it is lost, or if you need help operating the phone. The one-page document called “Information about HBCC P&E Study Phones for Providers” describes all the policies and procedures around tracking the phone that we discussed last time. You are not able to see the AirWatch software through the phone.
For now, let’s focus on EthOS. Please open the app. We’ve already created an account for you and signed you in. Are you able to open the app?
Are you being asked for a username or password? [If no]: Great, you are already logged in! However, if you accidentally log out or are logged out in the future, you can look at the small card we sent in the packet of materials. It lists yours EthOS username and password, which you can use to log in. This is to log in to the EthOS app. Your phone has a different password, which is what we discussed a couple minutes ago.
If they are prompted to log in, direct them to their login card.
If they are NOT prompted to log in, continue to the next step.
In the EthOS app, you will always have access to at least three “projects,” which is a term used by the app. You will always have access to the “Introduction and Instructions” project, the “Consent and Contact Information Photos” project, as well as a project corresponding to the set of topics we’ll ask you about that week. Each week we will provide you with access to a new project with new tasks for you to complete. These are the locations where you’ll actually take your photos and record your audio journal tasks and submit them. When you open the EthOS app, you should be taken to the “Projects” page. You should see three projects. Do you see “Introduction and Instructions,” “Consent and Contact Information Photos,” and “Week 1–Home Spaces” listed there?
If no, ask them to navigate/click on the three horizontal lines on the top right of the screen, and then click “Projects.”
If yes, continue to the next step.
Let’s start off by opening up the “Introduction and Instructions” project by clicking “Open.” You will then be taken to the home page, which provides an overview of the study and provides some details on how to complete your tasks in the app. You will always have access to this project, so we recommend referring back to this page if you ever get confused about how to do something in the app.
Next, let’s navigate to the “Consent and Contact Information Photos” project by clicking on the three horizontal lines on the top right of the study phone and then clicking “Projects.” Click “Open” on “Consent and Contact Information Photos.” This project is where you will upload pictures of family consent forms and family and community member contact forms. To do so, click on the three horizontal lines in the upper right corner of the screen and select “Projects,” find the “Consent and Contact Information Photos” project, and click “Open” to be taken to the home page for that project. Next, click on “My Tasks” on the bottom right of the page. You will then be taken to the task page with a task labeled “Consent and Contact Information Photos.” Click on the down arrow on the task and click “New Entry.”
On the following page, click “Add Entry” on the bottom of the screen, which will prompt you to take a picture. Let’s do this now together with a picture of the blank consent forms we sent you. You may be asked to allow the EthOS app to take photos and record audio. Select “While Using the App” or “Allow” for each option that appears. Once you do that, click “Picture.” This will then open the camera on your phone.
Once you finish taking your photo, you will be prompted to add a brief description of the photo. For the note, please enter the name of the child the family consent form is for. For this example, let’s say it’s the family consent form for “John Smith.” Once you are done, click “Send.” You would then repeat these steps in the same task for all family consent forms and contact sheets you get back from parents. But please keep the paper copies as well because we’ll ask you to mail them back along with your study phone once you’re finished with the study.
It's important that we get these forms back by EthOS because we have to keep this information secure. Please do not email or text us anything that has a family or community member’s name or contact information.
Do you have any questions before we continue?
Now, let’s open up the “Week 1-Home Spaces” project by navigating to the three horizontal lines on the top right of the study phone and clicking “Projects.” Click “Open” on “Week 1-Home Spaces.” Once you open it, you’ll be taken to the home page for “Week 1-Home Spaces,” which provides an overview of this particular topic, as well as information on what tasks you need to complete this week. As I mentioned earlier, each week you will gain access to a new project. Next week, for example, you will gain access to the “Week 2–Activities” project, so once you open up that project, you’ll be taken to that project’s home page.
After you’ve finished reading through the home page, click on the “My Tasks” option on the bottom right of the screen. In the app, “Tasks” refers to the photo and audio journal tasks that we’d like you to complete each week. You’ll notice in the “My Tasks” tab that there are multiple tasks listed. You will not need to complete all of them! Each week, we are only asking you to complete two photo and two audio journal tasks. There will always be one audio journal and one photo task we are asking you to respond to (which will show as “REQUIRED AUDIO” and “REQUIRED PHOTO”), and then you can choose which one other photo task and one other audio journal task you’d like to respond to, again based on what you’d prefer to do. We’re going over a lot of information, so do you have any questions before we move on?
Answer any questions they may have.
Under each task, you’ll notice that it says, “Number of Entries” and then “zero”. This shows that you have not submitted any photos or audio recordings for a given task. Once you submit a photo or audio recording for a task, that number will update.
Let’s complete a practice photo and audio journal task together. This process will be very similar to what we did for the family consent form photos. First, choose a photo task, which begins with the word “Photo”. To see the longer description for each task, click on a task. [READ FIRST PHOTO TASK ALOUD FOR RESPONDENT]. To take a photo for a task, click “New Entry.” The app will take you to another page where you will click “Add Entry.”
Next, take a photo; for this demo, the photo can be of anything around you because this is just for practice. If you like the photo, click “Okay”, otherwise, click “Retry”. Once you click “Okay”, you have another opportunity to preview the photo before clicking “Continue”. If you do not like the photo you took, click the “X” icon on the top left of the screen and repeat the prior steps. If you’re happy with your photo, click “Continue”.
Finally, before you can submit your photo, you’re asked to provide a brief description of the photo you took. When you take your photos throughout the 4 weeks, please use this space to briefly identify what is in the photo. Think of this like a title or caption for your photo.
For this exercise, please type “Practice Photo” for your description. Once you do this, click “Send”, and you will be taken back to the task, where your photo will appear. If you click the back arrow to get back to the list of tasks, you should see the “Number of Entries” field updated to “1”. Do you see this?
If no, troubleshoot for them. You may need to walk them through these steps again to take a new photo.
If yes, continue to the next step.
Do you have any questions about taking photos in the EthOS app?
Answer any questions they may have.
Now, let’s practice completing an audio recording. The process is very similar. On your “My Tasks” list, select one of the audio journal tasks. [READ FIRST AUDIO TASK ALOUD FOR RESPONDENT]. Just like with photo tasks, you will click “New Entry” followed by “Add Entry”. Once you click that option, you will be taken to the “Audio Task” page with a record button. Do you see the record button and timer on your screen?
When you’re ready to record, click record. Let’s start recording now while we are talking. Once you finish recording, click “Stop”. You’ll then see three options—“Play”, “Record”, and “Submit”. “Play” will play back the audio for you to listen to, “Record” will delete the audio you just recorded and start re-recording new audio, and “Submit” will take you to the next screen to upload your recording. Let’s press “Submit”.
Now, you will once again be asked to add a description. This is required by the app, even though you don’t need to describe the audio. To successfully submit the recording, just enter today’s date into the description field and click submit. It doesn’t matter which format you enter the date. When you record your tasks during the 4 weeks, you can do the same thing and just enter the date. You will then be taken back to the task, where your audio recording will appear. If you click the back arrow to get back to the list of tasks, you should see the “Number of Entries” field updated to “1”. Do you see this?
Do you have any questions about recording an audio in the EthOS app?
Answer any questions they may have.
Main study interviewer takes over.
Great, we’re almost done. I’d like to go over a few things about taking the photos and recording the audio journal tasks over the next four weeks.
We’re looking to learn more about your experiences and what’s important to you and what you do when you care for children. As I mentioned at the end of our first interview, there are no right or wrong responses. When deciding what to take a photo of, please try to take photos that show what is actually happening with you and the children you care for, and don’t do anything differently because of the study–for example, staging a photo–or tell us what you think we want to hear. The required photo and audio tasks are very flexible, and since you can choose among the optional photo and audio tasks, if one doesn’t apply to you, then you can choose a different task.
Another important note, about the audio journals: some of our questions involve your race, ethnicity, and culture. As we discussed in our first interview, we understand that people differ in how comfortable they are talking about these topics. If you feel comfortable, we’d welcome your thoughts about these topics, but if you don’t feel comfortable, that’s okay, you can answer different questions.
As we mentioned, for the photos, please include a few words or a short sentence that describes the photo. For audio journals, we don’t need an additional description. We don’t have any requirements for how short or long the audio journal recordings need to be, but there’s no need to record entries longer than 5 minutes. We encourage you to share specific examples or to tell a story about something that happened.
One important note about the photos: it’s fine to take photos in your home or a shared or public space, such as a sidewalk or library. However, please do not take any photos in someone else’s home, such as the home of a child you care for (If the provider lives with any noncustodial children they care for, clarify that is okay because it’s their home).
The only way we can get photos is through the EthOS app and on your study phone. We can’t get photos from your own personal phone.
Feel free to take the photos or record the audio journal tasks at days and times that are convenient for you. But, we ask that you choose at least 2 different days each week so you can show and tell us about different experiences during the week. Please try to take photos during the hours you are caring for children, unless it is a photo of a space in your home that looks the same during child care and non-child care hours. And please try to complete the photos and audio journal tasks each week, which will help us understand your experiences over time. The order in which you complete the photos and audio journal tasks within each week does not matter.
Let me pause here and see if you have any questions. [Respond to questions then ask]: If needed: “Thinking of a typical day for you, when might be a convenient time to take a photo of [X]?” “When might be a convenient time to record a few minutes of audio?”
For the photos, we are trying to focus on activities you do with children and the spaces where you do those activities, not the individual children you are caring for. Because of that, photos do not need to include children. However, it is okay if a child appears in a photo as long as the child’s parent signed the family consent form and marked that it would be okay for their child to appear in photos. Do you have any questions?
We understand children might ask why you are taking photos. We recommend you let the children know you might take some pictures for an activity you are participating in, that their parents said it was ok, and that they should keep doing whatever they’re doing when you take the photo and these aren’t photos they should pose for. (If they care for any school-age children) For older children who are in school, you could probably add that it’s a research study to learn more about the provider’s experiences, and that the photos will only be used for research.
Each week, I will check in with you to see how you’re doing and see if you have any questions. I’ll also send reminders when each week is starting and is about to end. And at the end of the 4-week period, I’ll schedule our final interview with you. We could email you, call you or text you to schedule this. What is the best way for me to contact you moving forward? [IF CALL OR TEXT]: would you prefer we contact you on your study phone, or your personal phone?]. Could you please confirm that the [email/phone number] we have on file for you is correct? [LIST EMAIL/PHONE NUMBER WE HAVE ON FILE].
Write down what the respondent’s preference is, along with contact info:
Preference:____________________________________
Contact Info: __________________________________
The first thing you’ll want to do is to use the family consent form to get permission from families to take photos of their children and submit the forms on the EthOS app. You can still begin to take photos without children in them and you can start now completing your audio recordings for this week. [If this call occurs later in a given week, confirm with provider that the first week can start the following Monday]. To get a sense of which upcoming photo and audio journal tasks you will have, check out the “Photo and Audio Journal Information” document we sent you. You can also consult the “Study Phone, EthOS, and Zoom Guide” for a reminder of the logistical details we talked about today. Finally, please remember to keep your study phone nearby during the next month in case an opportunity arises to take a photo. Relatedly, please remember to keep your study phone charged and turned on the whole time. If you happen to misplace or lose your phone, please contact me.
And one more reminder to please hand out the flyers and forms we talked about to family and community members, and once you get the forms back from families and get permission from community members, to upload photos of those forms through EthOS.
Do you have any questions for us before we end this call? [Answer any questions they have]. If you have any questions after this call about the EthOS app or study phone, please contact us at hbccpe@mathematica-mpr.com or 833-973-0011. This contact information is located in the FAQ section of the “Study Phone, EthOS, and Zoom Guide”. [NAME] and others on our team will be able to see your questions there. If you have any questions about the photos or audio journal tasks themselves, about the family or community forms, or about the study more broadly, please contact me–as a reminder I can be reached at [PHONE # AND EMAIL ADDRESS OF MAIN STUDY CONTACT]. You can also let me know if you have any issues with the app or study phone and I will relay them to others on the team. Thank you again!
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| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | MATHEMATICA |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-08-18 |