The article found that relationships among paper-and-pencil surveys of parenting, gathered in person and a Parenting Essentials score, coded from the phone interviews were significantly correlated. The Parent-Child Activities Interview showed promise as a reliable and valid measure of parenting, capturing frequent and detailed information about daily parenting practices. It was observed that cell phones might prove useful in intervening with mothers at risk of suboptimal parenting and child neglect. Data were derived from two multisite studies which were conducted to assess the feasibility of using cell phone interviews (the Parent-Child Activities Interview) to learn more about the quality of daily parenting among high-risk mothers, including child neglect. In the first study, 45 first time teenage mothers with 3- to 9-month-old infants were recruited and randomly assigned to two groups: 1 received frequent cell phone interviews and the other group less frequent interviews over their home telephone. In the second study, 544 adolescent and adult mothers and their first-born children completed 2 observations of parenting in their home, as well as a series of 3 PCA calls at ages 4 and 8 months. Parenting Essentials coded from the interviews were significantly related to observed measures of parenting at both time points. Tables, figures, and references