2021-2026
The purpose of this project is to advance understanding of how home visiting programs, including those funded by the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) and Tribal MIECHV Programs, can and do support family economic well-being.
Family economic well-being is key to families’ long-term stability and is linked to positive outcomes in other areas targeted by home visiting programs, such as parenting. Given what we know about the relationship between economic stability and parenting, and the complex impact of economic strain on caregiver well-being, it is important to understand how a stronger focus on family economic well-being in home visiting could support overall family functioning.
Family economic well-being is especially important to examine in light of the increased rates of unemployment and other economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have likely affected the needs of families and the resources available in communities. Furthermore, the pandemic has amplified and exacerbated the existing systemic health, social, and economic inequities that disproportionately impact Black, Latinx, American Indian and Alaska Native (particularly in the Navajo nation), Asian-American, and Pacific Islander communities and populations. When exploring how to advance family economic well-being, it is important to also consider systemic context, including a history of racial segregation and the clustering of social disadvantage and systemic disinvestment, and how this context may differentially affect communities.
The project completed an initial knowledge development phase, which included a literature review, a document review, and interviews and focus groups with home visiting practitioners and with families who have participated or are participating in home visiting. This knowledge development phase produced a conceptual model and identified strategies currently being used or that could be used by home visiting programs to support family economic well-being. The project also performed additional research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on family economic well-being, how home visiting programs responded, and lessons learned. The project will also develop and do formative testing of strategies to support family economic well-being..
The project was awarded to Mathematica with subcontracts to James Bell Associates, Start Early, and Decision Information Resources, Inc.
This project is being led by the Administration for Children and Families in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Point(s) of contact: Pooja Curtin and Laura Nerenberg