We report on a new measure of maternal affect from an ongoing multi-site birth cohort Saikosaponin B2 study with primarily low-income families the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. preferable to self-reported Saikosaponin B2 measures further research should determine whether the MDoC can be successfully administered by phone. If it can the MDoC would allow large-scale phone surveys to measure maternal affect for the first time. = 4789). Mothers and fathers were interviewed after the birth of their child and by phone approximately 1 3 5 and 9 years later. Families in a substudy were visited at home when children were ages 3 years (= 2596) 5 years (= 2366) and 9 years (= 3391). The MDoC was collected as part of this substudy in 18 cities at age 5 years. At the age-9 wave teachers were mailed a questionnaire and children completed a short computer-assisted personal interview. Over 2000 mothers were administered the MDoC (= 2113). Approximately 10% of cases were uncodeable because of administration error. Mothers who did not participate in the age-3 interview (= 73) or did not live with the child (= CD4 29) were also excluded leaving a final analytic sample of 1789. The mothers were largely disadvantaged (21% lived in poverty and 30% had less than a high school degree) but diverse in Saikosaponin B2 terms of race/ethnicity (54% Black 23 Hispanic 20 White and 3% other) and family structure (40% single 32 cohabiting and 28% married). There were low rates of missing data at ages 3 Saikosaponin B2 and 5 years (<6% per variable). At age 9 years 14 of children lacked self-report data and 40% lacked teacher-report data. Multiple imputations were conducted using the command in stata (StataCorp College Station TX USA). Only unimputed values of the age-9 dependent variables were analysed (von Hipple 2007 thus the sample size varies across models (≥ 0.85) the RA did ongoing reliability checks on 15% of each coder's caseload (= 0.84 on Positive Affect 0.86 on Negative Affect and 0.73 on Detachment). The RA and three coders coded Spanish-language tapes (5%). The Positive Affect scale captured the mother's expressions of love affection and pride whilst describing her child. Coders were instructed to consider the number of positive statements the level of descriptive detail (called specificity) and tone of voice. The scale had 5 points (1 = Expresses 0-2 positive statements towards child and almost no positive tone 5 = Nearly every (or every) statement is a positive one tone is usually consistently positive and there is much specificity present in statements). Unfavorable Affect captured the quantity and intensity of mothers’ expressions of dislike and disappointment. Coders considered the content of descriptions the number of unfavorable statements and the mother's tone of voice. The scale had 5 points (1 = Expresses 0-2 unfavorable statements towards child and no unfavorable tones 5 = Nearly every (or every) statement is a negative one and tone is consistently unfavorable; the child is usually presented as a problem). Detachment captured flat affect lack of interest in the child and lack of familiarity with the child as evidenced in superficial statements such as ‘He's a regular kid’ or ‘He loves his bike’. This scale had 3 points (1 = Does not express any statements or tone indicating detachment 3 = Expresses four or more statements indicating detachment from child and some to much flatness in tone). We also created a Verbal scale to serve as a control for the mother's verbal ability given that mothers with better verbal skills might score higher on both positive and negative affect. Coders considered both the true number of words mothers used and the precision and descriptiveness of words. This size had 3 factors (1 = = 0.63) through the Parenting Tension Index (Abidin 1995 Maternal melancholy was measured using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Brief Type Section A (= 0.92; Kessler Andrews Mroczek Ustun & Wittchen 1998 Secure child-mother connection was evaluated using the MAS-39 (Bimler & Kirkland 2005 an connection Q-sort process of toddlers. Moms sorted 39 credit cards into five hemorrhoids relating to how well they referred to the youngster and multidimensional scaling was utilized to represent each item as a spot inside a three-dimensional map with axes representing protection versus insecurity self-reliance versus dependence and object versus cultural orientation. Children had been.