Cuddle-Calm Booklets - Increasing Mother-child Emotional Connection Through the Use of a Nurture-based Children's Book

The parent-child relationship affects the child's socio-emotional development and the parent's stress. The purpose of this study is to test a behavioral intervention designed to guide parents and children on how to strengthen their relational health and navigate challenging interactions. This intervention will involve a unique experience in the well-child visit in the pediatric department (either virtually or in-person) at Metrohealth Medical Center, in which pediatricians will invite families to participate in the study. Then, study personnel will administer either "Cuddle and Calm," an illustrated poetry book that feature tips on how to promote the relationship between parents and their children, or "Health and Safety," an illustrated poetry book that features tips on how to navigate risky injuries. The approach is based on the construct of emotional connection as studied by Dr. Martha Welch's Nurture Science Program of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. They developed the Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS), an assessment that allows parent-facing professionals to rate the emotional connection of a mother-child relationship in just a few minutes of observed interaction, and shows preliminary predictive properties when performed in the first year of life. The WECS-Parent Report (WECSPR) is a Likert-scale parent-report screen with items regarding the domains featured in the WECS. All consenting subjects will complete WECS-PR, a tantrum survey before and after administration of the booklets to determine the impact of the reading material.