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Nurse home visitation and the prevention of child maltreatment: Impact on the timing of official reports

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

David S. Zielinski ,
John Eckenrode  and
David L. Olds
David S. Zielinski*
Affiliation:
Duke University
John Eckenrode
Affiliation:
Cornell University
David L. Olds
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: David S. Zielinski, National Institute of Mental Health, Office of the Director, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8206, Bethesda, MD 20892-9667; E-mail: dz17y@nih.gov.
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Abstract

This study examined the effects of the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), a program of prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses, on the timing of verified reports of child maltreatment. A sample of predominantly unmarried, low-income mothers and their first-born children were randomly assigned to receive either home visitation services by nurses beginning in pregnancy and lasting until the child was age 2, or comparison services. Previous studies have found that this program was effective in reducing the overall number of substantiated Child Protective Service reports by age 15. In the current study, survival analyses were used to assess temporal differences between nurse visited (n = 93) and comparison (n = 144) children's onset rates for maltreatment. The two groups' survival functions remained nearly identical until age 4, at which point the nurse-visited group's risk for onset began to significantly diminish. These results were more pronounced among the highest risk subgroup and among victims of neglect. The findings provide evidence that the NFP's success in reducing the number of maltreatment reports resulted in part from in its impact on the timing of the maltreatment process.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 441 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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