UNCG IGROW

INFANT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

ADVANCING CHILD HEALTH

UNCG iGrow – Infant Growth and Development – is a $3 million NIH-funded study, which tracks children from the womb to age two through five, a time when they begin developing independent self-regulatory behaviors.

iGrow broke ground as one of the first research studies to simultaneously examine the biological, psychological, and social factors that could raise obesity risk from infancy through toddlerhood.
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WHAT IS IGROW?

In the iGrow research studies, we hope to learn how child characteristics like temperament and emotion regulation, biological factors like hormones, and social factors like parenting and feeding choices influence your child’s healthy growth and development. We recognize that covid changed the landscape of parenthood. We want to capture Covid experiences (both stressors and supports), how parents’ psychological, social, and economic outcomes changed in response to Covid experiences, and how parents’ outcomes were related to their children’s development. We are very excited to hear from mothers and their co-parents for the iGrow CARES study. We are also interested in postpartum maternal health. The maternal heart health study is an ancillary study of iGrow, the primary goal being to investigate the relationship between the physical environment and cardiometabolic risk factors during pregnancy and the impact on cardiovascular health in the postpartum period. 

Our long-term goal is to use all of this information to help other families in this and other communities.

Current Studies

CONTACT

  • Phone 336.334.5328
  • iGrow Email
    [email protected]
  • Location
    319 College Ave, 248 Stone Building, Greensboro, NC 27412

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

  • Children who are ages 0 to 5 years old and their mothers may be eligible to participate.
  • Participants are tracked for a little over 2 years and receive small gifts and a total of $405.
LEARN MORE

FEATURED ARTICLES

Esther Leerkes and nurse

April 25, 2024

UNCG Research Provides Multi-Faceted View Of Families’ Health

UNCG researchers are investigating how the pandemic impacted parents – psychologically, socially, and economically. Project lead D…

Forgive Avorgbedor with participant

April 17, 2024

UNCG Nursing Faculty Works To Keep Mothers’ Hearts Healthy

Dr. Forgive Avorgbedor understands that keeping families healthy extends beyond efforts to prevent childhood obesity. And that many …

Esther Leerkes with iGrow participants

April 15, 2024

A Growing Issue: UNCG Research Team Fights Obesity At An Early Age

“Once a child becomes overweight or obese, it’s very difficult to reverse that trajectory,” says Jefferson-Pilot Excellence Pr…

READ MORE ARTICLES

iGrow Research

UNCG iGrow follows approximately 300 pregnant women and their children for two years in an effort to identify the earliest predictors of risk for childhood obesity. 

From undergraduate researcher to PhD student, former UNC Greensboro Human Development and Family Studies graduate, Aran Garnett-Deakin, shares her experience as an iGrow Research Assistant.

READ ABOUT ARAN GARNETT-
DEAKIN’S EXPERIENCE