Opportunities to Do more? Assessing Current Needs Among Texas Families Receiving Home Visiting Services

• In Event: Supporting Families during Formation: Examining predictors of engagement and outcomes of home visiting and supplemental nutrition programs

Abstract

Decades of research have emphasized the importance of fostering a nurturing, safe, and stable environment to optimize a child’s development and reduce longstanding disparities in opportunities and outcomes among different socioeconomic statuses and across racial and ethnic groups. Evidence on families participating in evidence-based home visiting programs, which provide in-home support, information, and education through a trained professional (e.g., nurse or social worker), show positive impacts on parenting skills and mixed results on other important child and family outcomes (see Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, 2021 for review).

Texas currently offers multiple evidence-based HV programs (e.g., Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, Nurse-Family Partnership, Parents as Teachers) that serve approximately 16,000 families annually (National Home Visiting Resource Center, 2019). As state agencies continue to evaluate how to best support families in our current context of a global pandemic and a global rise in the cost of basic necessities (RAPID, 2022), it is important that we understand the current, contextual factors that affect families and their children’s health development across different demographics.

This study focuses on the experiences of families in Texas that participated in Texas Home Visiting (THV) programs funded by the Prevention and Early Intervention Division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (PEI) anytime between October 2019 and October 2022. As part of an ongoing evaluation, we are conducting a multi-year mixed methods study on families who participate in state-funded HV. Among families receiving prevention-focused home visiting services in Texas in the last three years, the study examines a) needs families have that may affect the healthy development of their child(ren); and b) similarities and differences in family-need across racial and ethnic groups of THV participants. Our results will draw conclusions from two bodies of data: (1) THV program data collected at program enrollment, and (2) a survey administered to THV participants to assess a family’s current social, economic, and health needs. Preliminary results from the analysis of program data (N=4,899) suggest differences in family characteristics at enrollment across White, Black, and Hispanic THV families.

Authors

• Monica G Navarro, Vanderbilt University

• Liliane Nienstedt, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author