BC Council for Families

by David Sheftel
Program Coordinator, BC Council for Families

A new fact sheet just released this summer from Child Trends, a US research center that studies children at all stages of development, has great news for home visiting programs. The fact sheet, What Works for Home Visiting Programs, synthesizes the findings from 66 rigorous evaluations of programs with a home visiting component and finds that overall, 32 programs had positive impacts on child outcomes.

The fact sheet includes detailed notes measuring the effectiveness of each program in ten outcome areas, including parenting skills, parent-child relationship, child maltreatment, social skills, physical health, and substance abuse.

Among the findings:

• For programs serving early childhood (ages 0-3), "high-intensity" programs that lasted for more than one year and averaged four or more home visits per month were found to be effective for one or more child outcomes.
• Among programs serving preschool-age children (ages 4-5), using trained non-professionals and conducting weekly home visits produced mixed results.
• In middle childhood (ages 6-11), half of the programs that taught parenting skills (such as discipline, time management, and support) during home visits had a positive impact on at least one outcome; however, providing families with referrals to other services has mostly not been found to work.
• For programs serving adolescents (ages 12-17), those that use trained non-professionals as visitors and that last one year or longer showed positive impacts.

The study authors conclude that more research into home visiting programs is merited, to investigate promising strategies such as providing parent counselling during home visits, to evaluate the cost-benefits of home visiting to individuals, families, and communities, and to examine the impact of home visiting on targeted parent populations such as teen parents.