The Practice of Family Life Education Within Early Head Start Home Visiting

Objective To investigate relevant professionals' perspectives about potential collaboration between family life education (FLE) and home visiting in Early Head Start's Home-Based Option (EHS-HBO) to understand the merits and challenges of this partnership. Background Practices for EHS-HBO programs vary, which prevents the development of a consistent, evidence-based home visiting model. Alignment with the strengths-based family life education methodology (prevention, education, collaboration) may bring more consistency to EHS home visiting. Method A purposive sample of 123 family life education, family science, and early childhood professionals completed a topical, open-ended survey. Responses were analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. Results Several themes emerged from the data concerning (a) agreement that FLE is a viable approach to EHS-HBO (e.g., the FLE approach is beneficial, includes relevant training, and professionalizes home visiting); and (b) potential obstacles in merging FLE and EHS-HBO (e.g., deficiencies in FLE training for home visitors, certification requirements are restrictive, and lack of credential recognition). Conclusion FLE is a viable approach to EHS-HBO, and programs approved by the National Council on Family relations provide valuable training for future home visitors. Participants expressed positive attitudes as well as insight about the interface of FLE and EHS home visiting. Implications A current FLE approach to EHS-HBO needs to be conceptualized and described more thoroughly, and a measure of home-visitor fidelity to FLE should be developed. Research and alignment efforts are warranted on the synergy between FLE and EHS home visiting, which currently shows promise.