Early Childhood Home Visitation: To Prevent Violence by Children

Task Force Finding*

Home visitation programs aim to reduce violent acts by visited children by improving the quality of the relationship between child and parents through (1) guidance and examples of child care that visitors provide to parents, and (2) strengthening of social support for parents.

Available evidence is insufficient to determine the effectiveness of home visitation programs for the prevention of child violence, because the small number of studies provided inconsistent findings.

*From the following publication:

Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Recommendations to reduce violence through early childhood home visitation, therapeutic foster care, and firearms laws. [PDF - 71KB] Am J Prev Med 2005;28(2S1):6-10.

Review completed: February 2002