@article{KliemSandner2021, author = {Kliem, S{\"o}ren and Sandner, Malte}, title = {Prenatal and Infancy Home Visiting in Germany: 7-Year Outcomes of a Randomized Trial}, series = {Pediatrics}, volume = {148}, journal = {Pediatrics}, number = {2}, publisher = {American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)}, issn = {0031-4005}, doi = {10.1542/peds.2020-049610}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Given the lasting positive effects of prenatal and infancy home visiting in the United States on disadvantaged mothers and children at school age, we analyzed the follow-up effects of a German home visiting program (ProKind). We hypothesized improvements in 3 domains at child age 7 years: (1) child development and life satisfaction, (2) maternal mental health and life satisfaction, and (3) adverse parenting, abusive parenting, and neglectful parenting.METHODSWe conducted a randomized controlled trial of home visiting, enrolling 755 pregnant, low-income women with no previous live births. The intervention comprised 32.7 home visits by family midwives and/or social pedagogues until child age 2 years. Assessments were completed on 533 7-year-old firstborn offspring to evaluate 8 primary hypotheses. We found significant positive effects for 4 of the 8 primary hypotheses. Mothers in the intervention group reported fewer behavioral problems among their children in the Child Behavior Checklist (effect size [ES] = 0.21; 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 0.03 to 0.38), less child abusive parenting (ES = 0.19; 95\% CI: 0.00 to 0.37), fewer maternal mental health problems (ES = 0.25; 95\% CI: 0.07 to 0.43), and higher maternal life satisfaction (ES = 0.25; 95\% CI: 0.07 to 0.43). Additional preregistered subgroup analyses regarding child sex revealed larger effects for boys and mothers of boys.CONCLUSIONSThe results suggest that in a western European welfare state, home visiting targeting disadvantaged mothers has lasting effects in important outcome domains. Therefore, home visits also appear to be an effective and efficient public health intervention in European settings.}, language = {en} } @article{ContiPoupakisSandneretal.2021, author = {Conti, Gabriella and Poupakis, Stavros and Sandner, Malte and Kliem, S{\"o}ren}, title = {The effects of home visiting on mother-child interactions}, series = {Child Abuse \& Neglect}, volume = {115}, journal = {Child Abuse \& Neglect}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, issn = {0145-2134}, doi = {10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105021}, pages = {12}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Home visiting programs constitute an important policy to support vulnerable families with young children. One of their principal aims is to improve infant-parent relationships, so a key measure of their effectiveness is based on observational measures of parent-children interactions. In the present study we provide novel evidence on the effectiveness of home visiting programs in improving mother-child interactions within a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Pro Kind program. A major goal of the Pro Kind program is to promote child development by strengthening the intuitive parenting skills of mothers. On this basis, the following research question is addressed in this paper: What is the impact of the Pro Kind home visitation program on the quality of mother-child interaction?}, language = {en} }