Family Check-Up® For Children Meets HHS Criteria

Model effectiveness research report last updated: 2021

In brief

Evidence of model effectiveness

Title General population Tribal population Domains with favorable effects
Family Check-Up® For Children Yes, Meets HHS Criteria Meets HHS criteria Does not meet HHS criteria for tribal population because the model has not been evaluated with a tribal population.
  • Child development and school readiness,
  • Maternal health,
  • Positive parenting practices,

Model description

Family Check-Up is a strength-based, family-centered intervention designed to support parents’ efforts to promote children’s behavioral and mental health and prevent behavior problems. It can be integrated into a variety of service settings, including home visiting. The model focuses on families with children who are at risk for conduct problems and academic failure and face familial adversity including socioeconomic disadvantages and maternal depression. Families with children ages 2 through 17 years old are eligible for Family Check-Up. Family Check-Up is designed to reduce children’s behavioral problems, academic difficulties, and emotional problems, and to improve maternal depression, parental involvement, and positive parenting. Family Check-Up has two phases. The first phase involves three sessions with a Family Check-Up provider who has been trained in the model. In Phase 2, the provider recommends additional services that are tailored to the needs of the family, if appropriate. Services could include the Everyday Parenting family management training curriculum, school consultation, or community referrals. While the model description includes services to all age groups regardless of service delivery setting, the HomVEE review only included studies that offered the Everyday Parenting curriculum, used home visiting as the primary service delivery method, and focused on families with children ages 2 through 5 years old. Thus, for the purpose of the HomVEE review, HomVEE uses the name Family Check-Up for Children to describe Family Check-Up that includes the Everyday Parenting curriculum and is delivered in the home to families with children ages 2 through 5 years old.

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Extent of evidence

Results of search and review
Number of manuscripts
At least one finding was eligible for review…
29
  …and at least one finding rated high
10
  …and at least one finding rated moderate (but none rated high)
4
  …and all findings that were eligible for review rated low or indeterminate2
13
  …but manuscript is additional source3
2

For more information, see the research database. For more information on the criteria used to rate research, please see details of HomVEE’s methods and standards.

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Summary of findings

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Criteria established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Information based on comprehensive review of all high- and moderate-rated manuscripts
CriterionCriterion descriptionCriterion met?
1High- or moderate-quality impact study?Yes
2Across high- or moderate-quality studies, favorable impacts in at least two outcome domains within one sample OR the same domain for at least two non-overlapping samples?Yes
3Favorable impacts on full sample?Yes
4Any favorable impacts on outcome measures sustained at least 12 months after model enrollment?
Reported for all research but only required for RCTs.
Yes
5One or more favorable, statistically significant impact reported in a peer-reviewed journal?
Reported for all research but only required for RCTs.
Yes
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