How did we develop the CONNECT Survey?

This process began with a series of Empathy Interviews, where parent leaders had one-on-one conversations with parents across five states: Florida, California, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Interviews involved families with children aged 0–5 years, representing a diverse demographic background (43% Black/African American, 20% White; 94% mothers, 6% fathers; 54% on Medicaid, 26% on private insurance).

Empathy Interviews use open-ended questions to elicit stories about specific experiences that help uncover needs​. These one-hour interviews were conducted by the parent leaders and with another parent transcribing the conversation (with consent from the parent being interviewed).

Distribution of Parent Participants in Empathy Interviews

Prominent themes

Research leads at ICS conducted a thematic analysis on the interview notes from the Empathy Interviews, which were then reviewed by parent leaders and parents for accuracy.

Prominent themes included:

  • Being actively listened to and feeling genuinely attended to.
  • Receiving clear communication about their child’s health.
  • Being respected, valued, and treated without judgment.
  • Demonstration of kindness, empathy, and genuine care from clinicians.
  • Being engaged in shared decision-making.
  • Accessibility to clinicians and health information.
  • Positive interactions with office staff and a welcoming clinic environment.
The Delphi Method

Once the themes from the parent conversations were identified and developed into approximately 50 survey questions by research leads, Reach Out and Read and ICS then utilized the Delphi Method with parent leaders to fine-tune the survey.

The Delphi Method is an established qualitative research method to refine a survey using experts in the field. Through this method, parent leaders engaged in three iterative rounds of review of the survey, narrowing down the questions to the final 13.