Promoting Child Mental Health: RCT of Home Visiting

Hawaii's Healthy Start Program (HSP) is a well-respected home visiting program for families at risk for abuse of their newborn children. The program incorporates early identification of at-risk families. Each family then begins receiving long-term home visitations. The home visiting component aims to promote child health and development and to prevent child abuse by improving family functioning and parenting. Home visitors are trained paraprofessionals working under professional supervision. The program includes both direct services and referrals to community resources. Direct services include providing emotional support to parents, encouraging them to seek needed professional help, teaching parents about child development, and role-modeling parenting skills and problem-solving techniques. In a previous study, at-risk families were randomly assigned to either HSP or no intervention. Evaluations were conducted at the time of the child's birth and at ages 1, 2, and 3 in order to assess the home environment and the development and well-being of the child. This study is a continuation study. Participants will include the original families from the previous study, as well as a new group of families who are not at risk for child abuse. By interviewing and observing these two groups of families, this study will evaluate the effectiveness of HSP in promoting children's mental health, cognitive and social-emotional development, and academic achievement in the first years of school.

All families will be evaluated on a yearly basis when the child is in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. Interviews will be conducted with the parents, children, and teachers. Parent interviews will focus on family functioning, including mental health of the parents, parenting attitudes and behaviors, quality of the home environment, and any domestic violence or substance abuse that occurred. In addition, the child's health and development, as well as use of any community resources will be assessed. Interviews with the children and teachers will focus on assessing the child's behavior and emotional well-being. The family's home environment, the interaction between the parents and children, and the children's classroom behavior will be observed. Each child will also undergo developmental testing. All measurements will be collected at each yearly visit.