WIDENING THE SCOPE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT: THE FLORIDA MATERNAL, INFANT, AND EARLY CHILDHOOD HOME VISITING PROGRAM

The Florida Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program is designed to support pregnant women and families in developing skills and utilizing resources necessary to promote their children's physical, social, and emotional development. Little evaluation attention has focused on large-scale, public policy driven home-visiting programs. Social support provision is a critical component of a successful home-visiting program; therefore, there is a need to better understand participants' perceptions of social support provided to them in this context. Forty-five home-visiting participants from five Florida MIECHV programs completed semistructured telephone interviews. Participants discussed their experiences with the MIECHV program, including descriptions of their interactions with home visitors. Content analysis revealed that participants experienced multilayered social support from home-visiting staff. Families needed and received substantial emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support at the individual level. This support was embedded within and strengthened by the strategies and activities of the home-visiting model of service provision. Results highlight the powerful opportunity home visiting offers as a method of service delivery within the larger system of care to increase social support in families experiencing high risk for negative maternal and child health outcomes. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.