Long-Term Effects of Nurse Home Visitation on Children's Criminal and Antisocial Behavior: 15-year Follow-up of a Randomized Controlled Trial

• NCJ Number: 174345
• Journal: Journal of the American Medical Association Volume: 280 Issue: 14 Dated: October 1 Pages: 1998)-1244
• Author(s): D Olds; C R Henderson R,; R Cole; J Eckenrode; H Kitzman; D Luckey; L Pettitt; K Sidora; P Morris; J Powers
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The long-term effects of a program of prenatal and early childhood home visitation by nurses on children's antisocial behavior was examined in a 15-year follow-up of a randomized, controlled trial.

Abstract

Data were collected by means of interviews with the adolescents and their biological mothers or custodial parents. Some of the mothers had received home visits from nurses between April 1978 and September 1980, including an average of 9 home visits during pregnancy and 23 home visits from birth through the child's second birthday. The control group received standard prenatal and well-child care in a clinic. Eighty-nine percent of the 315 adolescent participants were born to white mothers, 62 percent to unmarried mothers, 48 percent to mothers younger than 19 years, and 59 percent to mothers from households of low socioeconomic status at the time of registration during pregnancy. The follow-up research gathered information from the 315 adolescents regarding their running away, arrests, convictions, being sentenced to youth corrections, initiation of sexual intercourse, number of sex partners, and drug use. The study also collected information on school suspensions, teachers' reports of disruptive behavior in school, and parents' reports of the children's arrests and behavioral problems related to the children's use of alcohol and other drugs. Results revealed that the adolescents born to women who received the nurse visits reported significantly fewer instances of running away, fewer arrests, fewer convictions and violations of probation, fewer lifetime sex partners, and less cigarette and alcohol use. Findings indicated that this program of prenatal and early childhood home visitation by nurses can reduce reported serious antisocial behavior and emergent use of drugs among adolescents born into high-risk families. Tables and 34 references (Author abstract modified)