Family functioning and involvement in home visiting: Examining program characteristics as moderators to support...

Area of Science:

• Family Science
• Public Health
• Early Childhood Education

Background:

• Improving retention in home visiting programs is crucial for program success.
• Family risks, including economic hardship, household dysfunction, and conflict, can impact program engagement.
• Understanding how home visit content influences retention is essential for optimizing service delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the moderating role of home visit content on the relationship between family risks and retention in home visiting services.
• To investigate whether focusing on parent-child interaction, child development, or case management influences program retention.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multilevel analyses on data from 1,322 parents enrolled in Healthy Families America and Parents as Teachers programs.
• Assessed family characteristics using the Family Map Inventories.
• Examined the moderating effects of specific home visit content on retention at 6 and 12 months.

Main Results:

• Home visitors' time spent supporting parent-child interaction significantly moderated the association between family risks and retention for all examined risks.
• A stronger positive association between focusing on the parent-child relationship and retention was observed for parents with greater needs.
• Child development content showed a positive association with retention, whereas case management activities were negatively associated with retention.

Conclusions:

• Focusing on parent-child interactions is key to improving retention in home visiting programs, particularly for families facing significant risks.
• While child development content supports retention, an overemphasis on case management may decrease it.
• Findings underscore the importance of supporting home visitors in promoting healthy parent-child relationships.