Family Check-Up® For Children
Last updated: 2017
In brief
Evidence of model effectiveness
This model meets the criteria established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for an “evidence-based early childhood home visiting service delivery model” for the general population, but does not meet the criteria for tribal populations.
Model description
Family Check-Up is a strengths-based, family-centered intervention designed to support parents’ efforts to promote children’s competence, mental health, and risk reduction. It can be integrated into a variety of service settings, including home visiting. The model focuses on families with risk factors including socioeconomic disadvantage, maternal depression, family and child risk factors for child conduct problems, and academic failure. Families with children ages 2 through 17 years are eligible for Family Check-Up. A version of this model called Family Check-Up for Children is appropriate for families with children ages 2 through 5, and is the focus of HomVEE’s review due to that age range. Family Check-Up seeks to reduce children’s conduct, academic, and internalizing problems, and to improve maternal depression, parental involvement, and positive parenting. Family Check-Up is made up of three home visits with a Family Check-Up provider who has been trained in the model. After the three home visits, the provider makes recommendations for additional services, as needed, that are tailored to the needs of the family. Services could include the Everyday Parenting family management training program, preschool consultation, or community referrals. For the purpose of the HomVEE review, only studies of sites that used home visiting as the primary service delivery method and that included families with children ages 2 through 5 were included. For more information, please read the Model Overview.
Extent of evidence
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.
Criteria established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Notes: If the model does not meet criterion 3 but meets criteria 1 and 2 based on findings from subgroups, the impacts must be replicated in the same domain in two or more studies using non-overlapping analytic study samples. HomVEE assesses and reports criteria 4 and 5 for all models that have well-designed research, but meeting those two criteria is only required of models for which all findings are from randomized controlled trials. Please read the HHS criteria for evidence-based models for more information.