Impacts of Home Visiting During the Pandemic

Due in part to structural socioeconomic inequality, children from families with lower incomes may be at particularly high risk of abuse, neglect, and behavioral problems during infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood. Research has found that home visiting programs for families with young children can improve children’s development and strengthen caregivers’ and families’ well-being. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created numerous challenges for home visiting programs, forcing them to deliver services online or in a hybrid format and to adapt their program models’ content to respond to pandemic-related challenges. One evidence-based home visiting program, Child First, provides a psychotherapeutic, parent-child intervention embedded in a coordinated system of care. This working paper highlights the 12-month impacts found in a study of Child First implemented in Connecticut and North Carolina.