Longitudinal Study of Family Participation in a Home Visiting Program: Importance and Influence of the Home Visitor – Family Relationship

Successful home visiting and family support programs are built on trusting and caring relationships between staff and program participants. Parental engagement is an important process that fosters the growth of the parent as well as the child. Unfortunately few studies have examined this primary causal dimension of relationships and have focused instead on distal outcomes that are easier to measure such as developmental gains of the child. This presentation will discuss findings of a retrospective study involving a cohort of Florida families who participated in the Healthy Families Pinellas (HFP) program between October 1, 1998 and September 30, 2005. Over 500 client families were randomly selected and divided into five categories based on their tenure in the program. The enrollment categories were short term (less than nine months), moderate (9 to 27 months), and long-term (28 to 60 months). A small group of families in the program for more than 60 months was labeled extended enrollment. The study examined hallmarks of success for these families, factors that predicted their level of engagement and length of participation, and individual, program and community factors that moderated engagement and participation. Findings discussed in this presentation will compare characteristics of the family support worker – client relationship with internal and external family relationships and the effect of these relationships on family engagement and participation. Early findings suggest that internal family relationships affect family participation and enrollment more than home visitor relationships. A case example and implications for home visitor training and practice will be discussed.