Reference Catalog

Does Home Visiting Reduce Intimate Partner Violence? Evidence From the Federal Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) Review

Katherine Niland, Marykate Zukiewicz, and Emily Sama-Miller

• Healthy Families America (HFA)
• Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP)

Home visiting interventions that target pregnant women and families with young children offer an opportunity to support mothers at risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). While research has demonstrated home visiting’s effectiveness in areas such as child and maternal health, less is known about its effectiveness in reducing IPV. To fill this gap, the federally-funded Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) project systematically reviewed studies about the effect of home visiting on IPV. Below are key findings, based on the best quality research HomVEE identified. HomVEE examined effectiveness research that tested how home visiting models impacted measures of IPV. This included both research on models that HomVEE has prioritized for inclusion in its usual review, and other research that is not yet part of the overall HomVEE review, but that has an IPV focus. Preliminary findings indicate that effectiveness research on IPV is limited in quantity, especially research in rural settings. But, the available research suggests that home visiting can reduce IPV. And there is some evidence that improvement in IPV outcomes happens soon after home visiting begins. In addition, preliminary findings from this review suggest that home visiting’s effects on reduction of IPV may especially be possible in certain types of families, including families that enroll in a home visiting model during the mother’s pregnancy. The review will be finalized and released publicly prior to the 2020 HV Summit. (author abstract)

Finished

• Participant, Family, and Program Outcomes