Follow-up of Families in Early Preventive Intervention

Detailed Summary

This project supports the post-third-grade assessment of 693 children and their families who were enrolled in a randomized trial of a program of prenatal and infancy home visitation by nurses that was epidemiologically and theoretically grounded. The project will determine whether the beneficial effects of the program on maternal, child, and family functioning extend through the early elementary school years, giving particular attention to maternal life-course and children's emerging antisocial behavior. Assessments of the children will be based on both mother and teacher reports. Teachers are independent, natural raters of the children's adaptation to an important social context. There are numerous reasons to expect that, from a developmental perspective, the effects of the program will increase as children experience the increased academic demands associated with entry into third grade. In addressing these questions, the current study will determine the extent to which this program of prenatal and infancy home visitation by nurses can produce enduring effects on maternal and child functioning (giving particular attention to the prevention of early-onset disruptive behavior disorders) in urban African Americans that are consistent with those achieved with whites in a central New York state county in a separate trial of this program conducted over the past 20 years.

Study Details

Timeline

Interventions