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Home Visitation Programs pp 101–117Cite as

Engagement and Retention in Home Visiting Child Abuse Prevention Programs

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Abstract

Two exploratory studies using different samples investigated how multiple factors impact engagement and retention in home-visiting child abuse prevention programs. To investigate engagement data came from 4057 mothers with newborns. A two-level hierarchical linear model revealed that poor community health and maternal isolation reduced the likelihood that mothers with newborns would engage in home-visiting services. A lack of engagement was defined as mothers who failed to participate in services after 90 days of creative outreach by home visitors. To investigate retention data came from 1093 mothers and 71 home visitors who resided in 12 different counties. Using a three-level hierarchical model of analysis showed that families were less likely to remain in a home-visiting program beyond 1 year if they lived in an area that had high community violence. Mothers were more likely to remain in the program if the home visitor received more hours of direct supervision. Older mothers were more likely to remain than younger mothers, and Hispanic mothers were more likely to remain than white non-Hispanic mothers. Implications for programming and study limitations are discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pennsylvania State University—Shenango, Sharon, USA

    William M. McGuigan & Breanna Gassner

Authors
  1. William M. McGuigan
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  2. Breanna Gassner
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Correspondence to William M. McGuigan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Family, Consumer and Human Development, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA

    Lori Roggman

  2. Center for the Study of Violence, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Nancy Cardia

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McGuigan, W., Gassner, B. (2016). Engagement and Retention in Home Visiting Child Abuse Prevention Programs. In: Roggman, L., Cardia, N. (eds) Home Visitation Programs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17984-1_7

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