Wilder Research conducted a qualitative exploration of parent retention and engagement in early childhood home visiting for the Minnesota Department of Health. Over 300 semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents from 19 home visiting sites across Minnesota.
Home visiting programs often work with other organizations to identify and reach eligible parents and connect them with services. This brief summarizes findings regarding this referral process, and offers recommendations for strengthening the processes used to describe home visiting services to parents, refer them for services, and encourage their enrollment.
Research has linked early childhood home visiting with a variety of benefits for children and parents. However, many eligible parents do not enroll in home visiting, while others drop out of services, or receive fewer visits than recommended. In 2014, the MN Department of Health contracted with Wilder Research to explore issues related to parent engagement and retention in home visiting. Prior research suggests that the relationship between the home visitor and the parent is a key factor that may influence the effectiveness and quality of the home visiting program, the delivery of program content, and parent engagement and program participation. This brief summarizes parents’ perceptions of their relationship with home visitors.
In 2014, the MN Department of Health contracted with Wilder Research to explore issues related to parent engagement and retention in home visiting. This brief provides an overview of the project itself, including the background and rationale, methods used, and lessons learned. To learn about the findings, see the Executive Summary and the topic briefs (Home visiting referral process, Relationships between parents and home visitors, Parent perceptions of program benefits, and Promoting retention in home visiting).
An extensive body of research has linked home visiting programs with a wide variety of benefits for children and parents. Previous research has explored home visiting engagement and retention, but most analyses have relied on administrative program data to explore engagement patterns. This project was designed to provide deeper information from the perspective of parents. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 320 parents. These parents included people who graduated from programs or who were enrolled with long-term participation, parents who enrolled in the program but left early, and parents who were referred to the program but did not enroll.
This brief explores issues related to parent engagement and retention in home visiting.
Home visiting is associated with a number of positive outcomes, but these benefits are most likely to occur when there is regular and frequent contact between the parent and the home visitor and full implementation of the curriculum. However, many eligible parents do not enroll in home visiting programs, while other parents enroll but drop out, or receive less than the prescribed quantity of services. This brief explores issues related to parent engagement and retention in home visiting. It describes parents’ reasons for enrolling in home visiting services, their perceptions of the benefits of services, and recommendations for strengthening their understanding of program services and benefits.
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