There's nothing more important than our children, which is why their well-being is a top focus of researchers at The University of New Mexico over the next two decades.
The Center for Applied Research and Analysis (CARA) within UNM's Institute for Social Research (ISR) is conducting a 22-year randomized controlled trial on a home visiting program founded and funded by CommonSpirit St. Joseph's Children. The Joyful Parenting Partnership program is a service where professionals visit families at their homes weekly or bi-weekly during the first three years of the child's life. The program offers an educational curriculum and connects families with community support and resources.
"We have a lot of data on these families and their children, and we will be analyzing that data for years to come," said Paul Guerin, UNM's principal investigator. "We're reviewing the data, reporting it, and looking to publish."
Researchers are studying 376 New Mexico families enrolled in this program to examine the outcomes of the home visits and assess their effectiveness. While many home-visiting programs exist, none have been studied rigorously for effectiveness among New Mexican communities.
"Home visiting has been researched in a variety of communities dating back to the 1960s. While many of these studies find improved child and maternal outcomes, these positive results don't always replicate across contexts," said UNM Research Scientist Aaron Lenihan. "It's important to assess a home visiting program that has been designed for and is being implemented within New Mexican communities."
CommonSpirit St. Joseph's Children approached ISR in 2014 when more families expressed interest in the program than there were spots available. This presented an opportunity to study outcomes for families who were randomly selected to receive the program compared with those who were not. Prior to this randomized controlled trial, two other studies were conducted. The first examined the development and implementation of the program itself, while the second evaluated the organizational culture. This led to the current outcome study, which began in 2016 and is expected to conclude in 2037.
While the study is only eight years in, researchers report seeing early signs that the home visiting program is effective and benefiting New Mexico families. This can be seen in two key outcome domains, child development and parenting attitudes and behavior, which researchers have collected data on for all families up to the child's third birthday. So far, data has been collected in the form of assessments administered to the children's mothers. Findings indicate that families receiving treatment are scoring higher and experiencing better outcomes.
"The scores on the assessments for those who receive the service are consistently higher at multiple time points than those who are randomized not to receive it, suggesting that it's aiding in child development and parenting attitudes," Lenihan said. "Development is very complex, and we don't know how this will manifest later in life. We're tracking other outcomes where we might see a downstream effect, like reductions in juvenile delinquency, family violence, and crime."
They are also focused on child abuse and neglect. Although it's too early in the study to draw conclusions, researchers will eventually be able to monitor this through hospital administrative data.
Early childhood welfare and education have been priorities in New Mexico, highlighted by the legislature's establishment of an Early Childhood Trust Fund in 2020. Guerin emphasizes that this study is not only needed but essential due to the state's challenges, including high crime and high adverse childhood experience rates.
"It's crucial to understand how early childhood education and home visiting programs can genuinely improve the lives of children in the context of New Mexico," Guerin stated.
Over the next 14 years, UNM researchers will track the children into adulthood to monitor outcomes as they grow. While they are interviewing parents now, they plan to interview the children once they turn 12.
"Normally, we focus more on the back end, looking at outcomes, like crime and substance use, without understanding what occurred in early childhood. That's one reason to conduct a study like this; it just takes a long time," Guerin said.
