Understanding maternal intentions to engage in home visiting programs

Little is known as to why some parents choose to engage in voluntary home visitation services while others refuse or avoid services. To address this knowledge gap, this study tests several hypotheses about the factors that influence maternal intentions to engage in home visitation services and the link between these intentions and the receipt of a home visit. The sample consists of an ethnically diverse group of mothers identified as at-risk for parenting difficulties (N = 343). These mothers were offered home visitation services from nine home visiting programs located across six states. Regardless of service acceptance or refusal, all mothers were interviewed within 2 weeks of the service offer and 3 months later. The findings suggest that mothers who intend to use services look substantially different from those who do not state an intention to participate in home visitation. The results indicate that lower infant birth weight and greater comfort with a provider in one\u27s home are significant predictors of maternal intentions to utilize home visiting services. The study results also support the connection between intent and behavior as the expressed intention to engage in home visitation services was a key predictor of the receipt of a visit

The role of community in facilitating service utilization

Guided by an integrated theory of parent participation, this study examines the role community characteristics play in influencing a parent\u27s decision to use voluntary child abuse prevention programs. Multiple regression techniques were used to determine if different community characteristics, such as neighborhood distress and the community\u27s ratio of caregivers to those in need of care, predict service utilization levels in a widely available home visiting program. Our findings suggest that certain community characteristics are significant predictors of the extent to which families utilize voluntary family supports over and above the proportion of variance explained by personal characteristics and program experiences. Contrary to our initial assumptions, however, new parents living in the most disorganized communities received more home visits than program participants living in more organized communities. The article concludes with recommendations on how community capacity building might be used to improve participant retention. Copyright © by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved