A randomized controlled trial of Child FIRST: a comprehensive home-based intervention translating research into early childhood practice

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Child development

Abstract

This randomized, controlled trial was designed to document the effectiveness of Child FIRST (Child and Family Interagency, Resource, Support, and Training), a home-based, psychotherapeutic, parent-child intervention embedded in a system of care. Multirisk urban mothers and children, ages 6-36 months (N = 157) participated. At the 12-month follow-up, Child FIRST children had improved language (odds ratio [OR] = 4.4) and externalizing symptoms (OR= 4.7) compared to Usual Care children. Child FIRST mothers had less parenting stress at the 6-month follow-up (OR = 3.0), lower psychopathology symptoms at 12-month follow-up (OR = 4.0), and less protective service involvement at 3 years postbaseline (OR = 2.1) relative to Usual Care mothers. Intervention families accessed 91% of wanted services relative to 33% among Usual Care. Thus, Child FIRST is effective with multirisk families raising young children across multiple child and parent outcomes.

First Page

193

Last Page

208

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01550.x

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Identifier

21291437 (pubmed); 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01550.x (doi)

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS