Child First | Plataforma de Evidencias

This is a home visitation program for fathers and mothers of children between the ages of zero and four. The aim is to prevent or reduce serious emotional disturbances, developmental and learning disabilities, as well as child abuse or neglect.
Each family is accompanied by a clinical team that provides psychotherapy services, intensive care coordination, linkage to community social services, and parenting skills training.
The essential components of the program are:
1) A system of care to stabilize and provide comprehensive services and support to the child and family;
2) A psychotherapeutic approach based on attachment-building to improve the protective capacity and responsiveness of parents and children, promoting positive social and emotional and cognitive development;
3) An intervention based on parents’ needs rather than a fixed curriculum.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed that, although children participating in the program showed a statistically significant reduction in externalizing problems, there was no impact on other outcomes, including internalizing problems, dysregulation, parent-child conflict, and parental distress. Overall, the preponderance of evidence suggests that the program had no impact on children or parents [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Lowell, D. I., Carter, A. S., Godoy, L., Paulicin, B. & Briggs-Gowan, M. J. (2011). A randomized controlled trial of Child FIRST: A comprehensive home-based intervention translating research into early childhood practice. Child Development, 82(1), 193–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01550.x

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