Family Check-Up® For Children-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.