Measuring the Quality of Home-Visiting Services: A Review of the Literature
Peer Reviewed
Date issued
Oct 2015
Subject
Child Development;
Evaluation;
Program Evaluation;
Development Impact;
Nutrition;
Youth and Children
JEL code
I38 - Government Policy • Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs;
H75 - State and Local Government: Health • Education • Welfare • Public Pensions;
J13 - Fertility • Family Planning • Child Care • Children • Youth;
H53 - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
Category
Technical Notes
This document reviews the literature on the definition and measurement of quality of home visiting programs designed to promote early childhood development, with a particular focus on those interventions aimed at enhancing child cognitive, language, and socio-emotional outcomes. After summarizing the evidence on home visiting programs in the United States and internationally, we discuss the key elements that define a high quality home visit. Next, we describe a range of instruments designed to measure both structural and process elements of quality of home visits, instances in which they have been used, and the results of their administration.
