Abstract
Background
Drawing on the family stress model (Conger and Donnellan in Ann Rev Psychol 58:175–199, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085551), parenting programs typically support caregivers’ nurturing and cognitively stimulating practices to mitigate the effects of poverty on child development, with small-to-moderate intervention effect sizes.
Objective
This study evaluated a nonrandomized parenting program in Turkiye for low-income pregnant women and mothers of infants. The program utilized home visiting (HV) implemented by local municipalities for the first time. It was hypothesized that program mothers would engage in cognitively-stimulating practices more often at child age 9 months, and thereby expand their child’s vocabulary at 18 months of age. Subgroup analyses based on maternal depression were also conducted.
Methods
Using a quasi-experimental design, 526 mothers were allocated to one of two groups: HV intervention (n = 282, 77% pregnant) vs. control (n = 244, 69% pregnant). Mothers completed questionnaires on family and environmental risk at enrollment (T1), on depression and stimulating parenting at infant age 9 months (T2), and child vocabulary at 18 months (T3).
Results
HV mothers reported stimulating parenting more frequently than controls at T2. Enrollment in HV predicted larger child vocabulary at T3 through stimulating parenting at T2. Subgroup differences were not detected.
Conclusions
Results suggested that HV is a promising strategy to offer parent coaching to economically disadvantaged Turkish families. Though the present study made statistical adjustments to minimize group nonequivalence in baseline, selection bias might pose a threat to internal validity. A randomized controlled trial is warranted to examine its impact more rigorously prior to wider scale implementation.
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Çorapçı, F., Börkan, B., Buğan-Kısır, B. et al. Preliminary Findings of a Home Visiting Program on Stimulating Parenting and Child Vocabulary in a Sample of Economically-Disadvantaged Families. Child Youth Care Forum 53, 779–800 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-023-09772-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-023-09772-7