%0 Report
        %A Conti, Gabriella
%A Poupakis, Stavros
%A Sandner, Malte
%A Kliem, Sören
        %T The Effects of Home Visiting on Mother-Child Interactions: Evidence from a Randomised Trial Using Dynamic Micro-Level Data
        %D 2020
        %8 2020 Jan
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 12937
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp12937
        %X Background: Home visiting programs constitute an important policy to support vulnerable families with young children. They mainly aim to improve infant-parent relationships, however evidence on their effectiveness based on observational measures is relatively scarce. The present study provides the rare opportunity to directly examine the effects of a home visiting program, the Pro Kind, on mother-child interactions in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Methods: A sample of 109 mother-child dyads was videotaped during a 3-min typical play situation at the participants' homes when the child was aged 25 months.
We use a novel micro-coding system which allows us to examine how the intervention affected the dynamic feedback responses of both mothers and children in three key measures of behavior: orientation, positive contingency, and negative/lack of contingency. The study is registered in the German Clinical Trial Register (trial ID: DRKS00007554, date of registration: 11 June 2015). Results: The intervention significantly improved the interactions between girls and their mothers, both in strongly stable and partly unstable situations. Mixed impacts were detected for boys. Conclusions: These results have important implications for the analysis of mother-child interactions data and the design of home visiting programs.
        %K randomized controlled trial
%K mother-child interactions
%K home visiting