Research Update: HIPPY home visiting program effective for Latino families

A study of the HIPPY (Home Instruction of Parents of Preschool Youngsters) program (Nievar, Jacobson, Chen, Johnson, & Dier, 2011) indicates the model results in both immediate and long term gains for young Latino children, ages 3-4 years. 

The researchers compared 54 children and families who received 30 weekly visits from peers who had been trained in the HIPPY model with 54 similar families who were on a waiting list to participate in the program.  The researchers found that the families who participated in the HIPPY program had more enriched home environments at the end of the intervention.  In addition, parents who participated reported they were more involved and effective in raising their children after the training. 

Statistical analyses indicated that receiving the HIPPY program was a stronger predictor of gains than other powerful factors including mothers’ education, or mothers’ levels of depression or stress.

The researchers followed the children when they were in third grade, and found that the children were more advanced in math than a comparable peer group.

The authors suggest that the success of the HIPPY program may be due to the use of paraprofessional home visitors from the same community as the families.  There may also be other factors that make HIPPY effective.  A paper describing home visitation program research and policy by Azzi-Lessing (2011) identifies several program components that might also contribute to child and family success.  These include a higher “service dosage” level, cultural competence of home visitors, and quality of training of the home visitors.  These are features of the HIPPY program, and may also contribute to program effectiveness.

Washington Learning Systems has free materials in Spanish, English, (and other languages) that can augment home visiting success. We also have parent-child early literacy video training materials available for purchase that can help home visitors learn and share important skills with parents

References:

Azzi-Lessing, L.  (2011).  Home visitation programs:  Critical issues and future directions.  Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26, 387-398.

Nievar, M., Jacobson, A., Chen, Q. Johnson, U., and Dier, S.  (2011)  Impact of HIPPY on home learning environments of Latino families.  Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26, 268-277.