Feature Story

September 20, 2007

Long-term Effects of Prevention and Early Intervention Services

Chapin Hall

Over the course of several years, Florida's Palm Beach County has begun to build an infrastructure of prevention and early intervention services to promote and support the healthy development and school readiness of children from birth to 8 years of age.

The county began this effort with a set of programs focused on serving families in four targeted geographic areas that have high levels of risk for poverty, teen pregnancy, crime, and child abuse and neglect.

This report presents findings from the second year of a longitudinal study commissioned by the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County to look at the use and effects of this system of services.

Mothers and their families are being followed for eight years to assess their service needs and use, family functioning, and child well-being and school readiness through a variety of methods, including analysis of administrative data, structured face-to-face interviews, and a qualitative study.

Cluster analyses of services used in the second year of their children's lives resulted in four service groups that included a low-service group characterized by use of basic health services and food programs, two moderate-service groups, and a high, multi-service group.