Long-term effects and significance of a home visiting program for children in disadvantaged areas

Children grow up with unequal life conditions and health depending on where they grow up.

Gothenburg is working with a home visiting program, targeting parents of firstborns in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas (the Rinkeby model). The short-term effects (0 – 15 months) of the model are evaluated, but studies of long-term effects are missing.

The planning project aims to outline a project focusing on long-term effects and significance of the home visiting program for the children up to 6-years of age, illuminate how the contribution by the Social Services can be evaluated, and which research methods that work well in targeted areas.

The planning project will be conducted in close collaboration (co-creation) with the staff working with the families (the social services and child health care), and civil servants working on a central level with overarching planning issues in the municipality and region. Preschools will also be invited based on their role in childrens upbringing.

Other collaborators are parents who have participated in the home visiting program, and researchers evaluating the Rinkeby model. The parents will contribute with thoughts about what to follow up when the children are older.

The collaboration with fellow researchers will guarantee that the later project will be designed enabling comparative analyses between studies.

The planning project will include at least two larger workshops, several dialogue meetings, and analyses of previous data and experiences. The planning project is crucial for the later project due to our dependency on collaboration with the practice.

Long-term evaluations of interventions are important because it is only when the children are older that effects can be detected on language and cognitive development, health etc. The work carried ot by the Social Services and child health care should be based on scientific evidence. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge on how to follow up the social services’ preventative work.