Retaining infants and young children who experience transitions in care in longitudinal studies of child health and development: Considerations from the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository · University of Wisconsin Law School Digital Repository

Retaining infants and young children who experience transitions in care in longitudinal studies of child health and development: Considerations from the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study

Pilar N. Ossorio et al., Retaining infants and young children who experience transitions in care in longitudinal studies of child health and development: Considerations from the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study, 47 Infant Mental Health J. (2025).

A transition in care (TIC) is a significant change in the primary adults who provide care for a child, involving a move to informal or formal non-parental care, including kinship and foster care. In this paper, we address three issues: (1) the theoretical and empirical reasons for retaining infants and children who experience TIC in longitudinal studies of child health and development; (2) the import of retaining infants and children who experience TIC in studies focusing on parental substance use; and (3) methodological strategies for following children with TIC. We discuss the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study as an example of how a large prospective longitudinal cohort study can retain children who experience TIC, describing strategies such as: (1) documenting the frequency and contexts of these transitions and their associations with child health, mental health, and neurodevelopment; (2) attending to consent and mandated reporting requirements; (3) being sensitive to state child welfare policies and practices; (4) addressing retention challenges; (5) focusing on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and (6) establishing methods that document transitions and flexibly follow children as they grow older.