The evaluation of an early childhood intervention program: A long-term follow-up study

Children, who experience poverty and poor parenting in a low-stimulus environment in their first years of life, are at great risk for developmental problems. The home visitation interventions are promising to enhance parenting skills and child development among at-risk samples, yet, the evaluations of sustained benefits are scarce in the literature. The aim of the current study was to conduct a 3-year follow-up evaluation for Istanbul95 Family Guidance Program, and to examine the sustained benefits in a subsample of intervention mothers and their 5-year-old children from the original study. Firstly, the intervention children were expected to receive higher scores on developmental skills than the control children at age 5. Secondly, the intervention mothers were expected to display stimulating practices more frequently towards their 5-year-olds compared to the control group mothers. Lastly, the stimulating parenting at 18-months of age was expected to mediate the relationship between intervention status and child outcomes at age 5. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of parenting and child development, except for vocabulary size. Also, when intervention children were enrolled to a preschool, they showed better performance in school readiness skills, yet the same pattern was not found among the control children. The results were discussed in light of the past research and suggestions regarding to research design and program implementations were made.