Dear Parents:

We are writing to invite you to participate in the 21st Century Families Project, a study on the daily lives and coping strategies of families with children.

Your family may be eligible to participate in this research on how adults and children juggle all the different things they have to do each day, and the effect (if any) on their overall health and well-being. We are recruiting one pre-K child and either one or two adults per family. For your participation, you will receive $200, as well as some non-medical information about your family’s schedule and your child’s physiology. If you choose to participate, you and your child will be visited in your home four times during one week this fall, at brief prescheduled appointments. You will be visited again four times during one week next fall (Fall 2003), for a follow-up study. You can withdraw from this research at any time.

This is part of a large-scale program on American family life under the MARIAL Sloan Foundation Research Center at Emory University. There is no risk to you or your children if you choose to participate in this research.

For more information, or to enroll, please call the study coordinators at 404-246-4269 (Jim Lulejian) or 678-596-6335 (Jason DeCaro). If you have access to e-mail, you can also write to jadecar@learnlink.emory.edu, or you can get more information at the web site: http://tadpole.emory.edu/families.html

In a time when many American families are under new and even greater strain, we can all benefit from better understanding family life and coping. Please consider participating.

Sincerely, Jason A. DeCaro graduate student in Anthropology

Carol M. Worthman Professor of Anthropology

-- Jim Lulejian (jameslulejian@netscape.net), October 02, 2002