Chazan-Cohen, R., Raikes, H. H., & Vogel, C. (2013). V. Program subgroups: Patterns of impacts for home-based, center-based, and mixed-approach programs. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 78(1), 93-109.
This study relies on data from a randomized controlled trial of 17 Early Head Start (EHS) programs that began in 1995. Seven of the programs served clients through a home-based option (though other clients in other EHS options also received home visits) and are the focus of this report (EHS-HBO). The study randomly assigned 1,385 families, who applied to those seven programs, either to receive home-based EHS or a comparison condition. This study included outcomes reported for the 5-year-old follow-up (other years of follow-up are reported in separate studies). For this follow-up, 927 parents (479 in EHS-HBO and 448 in the comparison group) provided data for parent interviews.
The study was conducted in 17 EHS programs throughout the United States, including seven programs with home-based options, which are the focus of this report. Four programs were located in urban areas and three programs were located in rural areas. The seven programs represented a mix of implementation timing; one early implementer had all EHS-HBO elements in place by 1997, and three later implementers had all elements in place by 1999; three programs did not have all elements in place by 1999. The early-implementing program had fully implemented both child and family development services early and continued to have those services in place in 1999.
EHS-HBO services are intended to be delivered to families via weekly home visits. Seventy percent of families in these programs received weekly visits during at least one of the first two follow-up periods, and 26 percent received such services throughout both periods. Over the first two years, families in the home-based option received an average of 71 visits. Typical home visits were at least one hour long. Topics for home visits included child growth and development, child play activities, housing issues, and parent-child communication.
Control group families could not receive EHS-HBO services, but could receive other services available in their community.
Not specified.
Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the Child Outcomes Research and Evaluation team (CORE) within ACF’s Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), and the Head Start Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF).
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: None found. Study registration was assessed by HomVEE beginning with the 2014 review.