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Theoretical foundations of a program of home visitation for pregnant women and parents of young children
Author(s) -
Olds David,
Kitzman Harriet,
Cole Robert,
Robinson JoAnn
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6629(199701)25:1<9::aid-jcop2>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - compromise , psychology , developmental psychology , set (abstract data type) , human development (humanity) , life course approach , early childhood , child development , program evaluation , gerontology , medicine , sociology , social science , programming language , public administration , computer science , political science , law
Abstract This article reviews the theoretical foundations of a program of prenatal and early childhood home visitation that has been tested and refined over the past two decades while it was examined in a series of three randomized trials. It describes the role that theories of self‐efficacy, human attachment, and human ecology have played in shaping the content and clinical methods of the program. The program was designed to improve: (1) the outcomes of pregnancy; (2) qualities of parental caregiving (and associated child health and developmental outcomes); and (3) maternal life‐course development (helping women return to school, find work, and plan future pregnancies). Each of the theoretical perspectives provides insights into different aspects of parents' and children's lives that the visitors attempted to support in their efforts to prevent a set of interrelated health and developmental problems that compromise mothers' prenatal health, their own life‐course development, and the health and development of their children. While adhering to a common core, the program content and methods evolved over each of three trials and were reflected in program protocols that increasingly were connected in more explicit ways to their theoretical foundations. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.