Home Visiting and Child Welfare Involvement: A Matched Comparison Group Study.

Abstract

The present study is one of the largest quasi-experimental studies to date on the effects of home visiting on documented child maltreatment during a child's first two years of life. In this matched comparison group study, we compare 8796 families that participated in a home visiting program (HV families) to 8796 similar non-participating families (non-HV families) selected from birth records using Coarsened Exact Matching. Using sequential logistic regression, we identify that HV families have significantly higher odds of experiencing a child maltreatment investigation by their child's second birthday compared to non-HV families; however, among those that were investigated, HV families have significantly lower odds of having their first investigation substantiated for maltreatment. Overall, HV families do not differ significantly from non-HV families in the odds of experiencing a substantiated investigation over 2 years. We share implications for considering surveillance bias, and we highlight the importance of including both substantiated and unsubstantiated investigations when studying the effects of home visiting on documented child maltreatment.