Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE)

Project

Overview

Project Overview

Home visiting programs operate around the country to prevent child maltreatment, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and increase school readiness. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 authorized the creation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, expanding federal funding of home visiting programs.

The Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE) is a legislatively mandated, large-scale evaluation of the effectiveness of home visiting programs funded by MIECHV. It will systematically estimate the effects of MIECHV home visiting programs on a wide range of outcomes and study the variation in how programs are implemented.

MIHOPE includes four evidence-based home visiting program models: (1) Early Head Start - Home Based Program Option, (2) Healthy Families America, (3) Nurse-Family Partnership, and (4) Parents as Teachers. Two of these models are also included in the related MIHOPE-Strong Start study, which examines birth outcomes for women who are enrolled in Medicaid.

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Health, Families with Children

Focus Area: Health, Two-Generation Programs

Population: Families, Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: Children 0-5, Single-Parent Families

Intervention: Home Visiting

Costs of Evidence-Based Early Childhood Home Visiting

Results from the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation

Home visiting programs aim to support the healthy development of infants and toddlers in families with low incomes. This report presents the findings from a study that estimated the cost of providing home visiting services.

Overview »

Full

Report

Design of the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation Long-Term Follow-Up

Home visiting provides information, resources, and support to expectant parents with low incomes and families with young children and low incomes. This report presents the proposed design for long-term follow-ups with families in a recent large study of home visiting, continuing through the time their children are in high school.

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Full

Brief

A Summary of Results from the MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start Studies of Evidence-Based Home Visiting

Home visiting provides information, resources, and support to expectant low-income parents and low-income families with young children. This brief summarizes reports from two national studies of early childhood home visiting.

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Full

Agenda, Scope, <br> & Goals

Agenda, Scope, and Goals

MIHOPE will provide federal and state policymakers, service providers, and other interested parties with valuable information about whether and how home visiting programs improve outcomes for children and families.

MIHOPE will enroll approximately 4,300 at-risk families who are expecting a baby or have an infant up to 6 months old. The study includes 88 program sites in 12 states nationwide. MIHOPE includes four evidence-based home visiting models: Early Head Start - Home Based Program Option, Healthy Families America, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers.

MIHOPE has a number of aims. It will:

Assess the effects of the programs on child and parent outcomes, including prenatal, maternal, and newborn health; child health and development; parenting skills; school readiness and academic achievement; crime and domestic violence; family economic self-sufficiency; and referrals and service coordination
Examine how the program models operate in their local and state contexts, linking implementation strategies to program impacts to inform the field about the types of program features or strategies that might lead to greater impacts on families
Assess the potential of the programs to affect the health care system and to reduce costs

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Health, Families with Children

Focus Area: Health, Two-Generation Programs

Population: Families, Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: Children 0-5, Single-Parent Families

Intervention: Home Visiting

Costs of Evidence-Based Early Childhood Home Visiting

Results from the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation

Overview »

Full

Report

Design of the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation Long-Term Follow-Up

Overview »

Full

Brief

A Summary of Results from the MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start Studies of Evidence-Based Home Visiting

Overview »

Full

Design, Sites, & <br> Data Sources

Design, Sites, and Data Sources

MIHOPE uses a rigorous study design. The study includes three components:

An analysis of the state needs assessments that were provided in the state MIECHV applications
An effectiveness study that incorporates random assignment and an implementation study, which together will investigate how the program models operate in their local and state contexts, describe the families who participate, and examine health disparities and outcomes
An economic analysis that will estimate the financial costs of operating the programs

Data will be collected through a variety of means, including surveys, reviews of program policies, administrative records, interviews with state administrators, videotaped observations of selected home visits, web-based surveys of local staffs, and web-based activity logs kept by home visitors and supervisors.

The study includes 88 program sites in 12 states nationwide: California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin. In January 2015 early findings were released in the MIHOPE Report to Congress.

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Health, Families with Children

Focus Area: Health, Two-Generation Programs

Population: Families, Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: Children 0-5, Single-Parent Families

Intervention: Home Visiting

Costs of Evidence-Based Early Childhood Home Visiting

Results from the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation

Overview »

Full

Report

Design of the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation Long-Term Follow-Up

Overview »

Full

Brief

A Summary of Results from the MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start Studies of Evidence-Based Home Visiting

Overview »

Full

Funders & <br />Partners

Funders

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Partners

Johns Hopkins University

James Bell Associates

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

University of Georgia

MDRC Staff

Virginia Knox
President
Virginia Knox became President of MDRC on October 15, 2019. Prior to being named president, Knox served as vice president and as leader of the organization’s Families and Children Policy Area.
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Charles Michalopoulos
Chief Economist
Michalopoulos is MDRC’s chief economist and directs the Youth Employment, Criminal Justice, and Employment Policy Area. He has more than three decades of experience studying a wide variety of social policies to help low-income families achieve better economic, health, and social outcomes.
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JoAnn Hsueh
Director, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
JoAnn Hsueh is the director of MDRC’s Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area, bringing expertise in the development of young children, early childhood education.

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Desiree Principe Alderson
Senior Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Alderson is currently the data manager for the Get Ready Guilford Initiative, which is a county-wide initiative to improve outcomes for children in Guilford, North Carolina.
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Dina A. R. Israel
Senior Associate, Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment
Israel is one of MDRC’s senior field liaisons and technical assistance team members, as well as a project director.
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Erika Lundquist
Senior Associate, MDRC Center for Data Insights
Lundquist currently serves as project director for the Optimizing Texting Technology through Engagement Research with Students (OTTERS) project.
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Electra Small
Senior Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
As a technical manager, Small takes a lead role in every aspect of a project’s technical work, including data acquisition, security, verification, cleaning, imputation, and analyses.

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Carolyn Hill
Senior Fellow, Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment
Hill joined MDRC in 2014 from Georgetown University, where she was a tenured associate professor of public policy.
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Rebecca Behrmann
Operations Associate, Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment
Behrmann has more than 15 years of experience in the implementation of large-scale research studies.
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Ximena Portilla
Research Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Portilla is a research associate in the Family Well-Being and Child Development policy area at MDRC.
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Anne Warren
Research Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Warren has 10 years of experience processing and analyzing quantitative data from programs focused on health care and employment.
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Samantha Xia
Research Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Xia joined MDRC in 2014 and focuses on data collection, management, and analysis. She has held lead roles on several home visiting projects, including implementation and impact studies. She currently serves as the lead analyst and data manager for the Child First Randomized Controlled Trial.
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Kelly Saunders
Research Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Saunders joined MDRC in June 2016 as a technical analyst for the federally funded Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE).
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Ilana Blum
Deputy Operating Director, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Blum currently serves as the resource manager for Variations in Implementation of Quality Interventions and two projects housed under the Expanding Children’s Early Learning Network (ExCEL), as well as other projects within the Families and Children policy area.
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Mallory Undestad
Research Analyst, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Undestad currently works in the Families and Children policy area, providing technical assistance and installation support on Variations in Implementation of Quality Interventions and a project housed under the
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Cullen MacDowell
Research Analyst, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
MacDowell works in MDRC’s Families and Children policy area, focusing on statistical programming, visualizing and analyzing data, and synthesizing findings of early childhood education and maternal and infant home visiting programs.
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Marissa Strassberger
Research Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Strassberger joined MDRC in 2013 and works in two roles: implementation researcher and data collection manager. As an implementation researcher, she plans and executes qualitative implementation studies—designing protocols, conducting site visits, interviewing participants, and analyzing data.
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Livia Martinez
Research Assistant, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Martinez is a technical research assistant in MDRC’s Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area.
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Helen Lee
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Alexandra Giles
Research Assistant, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Giles is a research assistant in the Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area. She works primarily on the long-term follow-up phase of the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE).
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Tahsin Amin
Research Assistant, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Amin is a research assistant in the Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area, working on implementation and evaluation studies of early childhood interventions that aim to improve the developmental, health, and socioeconomic outcomes of the marginalized communities they serve.
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