Exploring Effects of Ethnoracial and Linguistic Match between Children and Home Visitors on Family Retention

Abstract

Studies of medical and psychological services suggest that congruence between provider and patient on various demographic factors may be associated with better retention outcomes, such research has not been extensively examined among Early Childhood Home Visiting (ECHV) programs. This study examines the effects of matching child’s primary language with the language spoken during visit and the extent to which ethnoracial and/or linguistic matching within HV-child dyads, is associated with retention outcomes in 2209 families enrolled in a long-term ECHV for low-income families with children between 2-4 years old. Logistic regressions with odds ratios were used to examine associations of varying degrees of HV-child ethnoracial and linguistic match with family retention rate among 839 families. Families with children who shared both the race/ethnicity and language as their home visitor were found 2.60 times more likely to complete the ParentChild+ program relative to their counterparts. Findings suggest promoting an ethnoracial and linguistic match with families may be a viable strategy for increasing retention in long-term ECHV programs. Future research should consider variety of measures to reflect the complexity of cultural match effects on program outcomes and investigate the roles recruitment, training and supervision can play when direct demographic match is not possible.