Health Topics

• Data Development
• Health Care Reform
• Health Information Technology
• Medicaid and CHIP
• Medicare
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse
• Payment Policies and Costs
• Public and Population Health
• Quality and Health System Functioning
• State Health Policy

Implementation Evaluation of Bright Beginnings and Personal Best

Parenting practices are important because they affect not only family well-being but also children's emotional adjustment and readiness for school. Mathematica evaluated several parenting interventions targeted to at-risk children and families.

The interventions included (1) Bright Beginnings, which promotes children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development by supporting parent/child attachment relationships, and (2) Personal Best, which enhances the mental health and self-sufficiency of mothers of young children. The Ackerman Institute for the Family conducted these interventions with the support of the Robin Hood Foundation, which sponsored several early childhood interventions to promote school readiness, prevent abuse and neglect, and decrease substance abuse and mental health problems. 

The study looked at whether mothers and children receive enough exposure to the interventions to promote changes in behavior and mental health. It also examined implementation challenges and determined whether the interventions were implemented with fidelity.

Mathematica also helped to refine and examine the theory of change used to guide these interventions. This project included the development of fidelity measures and a participant tracking system as well as observations of the interventions in New York City among primarily Latino and Chinese immigrant populations.