2-053 - Adolescent Mothers: Preventive Home Visiting Intervention to Support Developmental Goals

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The proposed symposium represents findings from a statewide home visiting intervention serving first-time adolescent mothers. Findings suggest that the program was effective in meeting a number of goals that are particularly salient for this adolescent population, including reducing risky behaviors and fostering maternal educational attainment. Results from analysis of program operations and impacts are presented in the individual papers, and emphasize both theoretical and methodological contributions: 1) the theoretical significance lies in the emphasis on setting intervention goals that have developmental salience for adolescent mothers and highlight the relevance for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who work with adolescent populations; 2) the methodological contributions lie in the use of a multi-disciplinary, mixed methods design that combines a rigorously designed RCT evaluation with uniquely designed person-centered measures of program utilization and fidelity to examine the relations between program operations and program impacts. In paper 1 program impacts are presented and results show that the program was effective in areas relevant to this age group (e.g., reducing risky behaviors), but not in other areas. In paper 2, authors develop a measure of program fidelity and explore whether program effects varied depending on how faithfully programs operated according to model standards. Finally, paper 3 presents results of an investigation of the relationship between the adolescent mother and the home visitor, utilizing in-depth interviews and a person-centered cluster analytic approach. Together the three papers make significant, novel contributions to the field highlighting the developmental context of adolescents as targets of interventions.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Ann Easterbrooks, Tufts University

Discussant

• Anne Duggan, Johns Hopkins University

Individual Presentations

• Impacts of a Home Visiting Program for Young First-Time Parents: Achieving Developmentally Appropriate Outcomes - Presenting Author: Jayanthi Mistry, Tufts University; Ann Easterbrooks, Tufts University; Erin Bumgarner, Abt Associates, Inc.; Maryna Raskin, Tufts University; Jessica L Goldberg, Tufts University; francine jacobs, Tufts University; Nathan Fosse, Tufts University; Jana H Chaudhuri, Tufts University; Rebecca C. Fauth, Tufts Univ

• Measuring Program Fidelity in the [Program Name] Home Visiting Program - Presenting Author: Jessica L Goldberg, Tufts University; Erin Bumgarner, Abt Associates, Inc.; francine jacobs, Tufts University; Mariah Margaret Contreras, Tufts University; Nathan Fosse, Tufts University; Maryna Raskin, Tufts University; Ann Easterbrooks, Tufts University; Jayanthi Mistry, Tufts University

• Young Mothers and Their Home Visitors: Relationships that Matter - Presenting Author: francine jacobs, Tufts University; Jessica Greenstone, Tufts University; Lerzan Coskun, Tufts University; Erin Bumgarner, Abt Associates, Inc.; Jessica L Goldberg, Tufts University; Maryna Raskin, Tufts University; Jayanthi Mistry, Tufts University; Ann Easterbrooks, Tufts University; Judith Scott, Tufts University