A Conceptual Framework for Family Engagement in Early Childhood Home Visiting
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A Conceptual Framework for Family Engagement in Early Childhood Home Visiting

OPRE Brief #2023-299
Published: Nov 30, 2023
Publisher: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Equity Early Childhood Child Development Child Welfare Early Childhood Systems Family Support Federal
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Associated Project

Understanding and Expanding the Reach of Home Visiting (HV-REACH)

Time frame: 2021–2025

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

Clients
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Authors

Emily Rosen

Rebecca Kleinman

Patricia Del Grosso

Catherine Ayoub

Ashton Chapman

Christina Mondi-Rago

Joanne Roberts

Key Findings
  • Family engagement occurs at all points where families and home visiting programs interact.
  • Interactions are broken into three stages: (1) outreach and awareness; (2) recruitment and enrollment; and (3) retention and active participation.
  • Family engagement is influenced by factors at the family, home visitor, program, community, and systems levels.

Early childhood home visiting is a service delivery strategy that supports child and maternal health, children’s development and school readiness, and family economic self-sufficiency, and also reduces child abuse and neglect. This brief introduces a conceptual framework that can guide efforts to strengthen family engagement in early childhood home visiting. The brief’s intended audience includes program staff, technical assistance providers, and researchers.

This conceptual framework seeks to: (1) synthesize the most important factors that support family engagement; (2) build awareness of actions programs can take that may facilitate family engagement, as well as the conditions of families, home visitors, programs, communities, and systems that might influence family engagement; and (3) encourage home visiting program staff, technical assistance providers, and researchers to use the information in the framework as a guidepost in developing their own strategies to strengthen family engagement. Expanding the reach of programs and actively engaging families to improve program retention can help home visiting programs achieve their goals of supporting family and child health and well-being.

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