Sujan, Ayesha2015-01-072019-08-192014-08-18bibid: 8793228https://hdl.handle.net/1813/38742Given that sociodemographic risk factors commonly used to identify families in need of home visiting interventions differentially relate to maternal and child outcomes and that effective home visiting programs impact different outcomes, efforts need to be made to target specific home visiting programs to families most likely to benefit from the interventions. The present study examined the relationship of sociodemographic risk factors to individual maternal and child outcomes as well as to composite measure of maternal and child well-being. Multiple statistical models were used to examine (a) the association of risk factors and outcomes (b) the independent predictive power of risk factors on the development of outcomes (c) the predictive power of the number of present risk factors on the development of outcomes, and (d) whether effects of risk factors on outcomes were moderated by other risk factors. Results showed that several risk factors were associated with outcomes, however did not independently predict the outcomes, indicating that home visiting programs shown to affect specific outcomes should be targeted to families with risk factors that independently predict those outcomes and more broad-based home visiting programs should be targeted to families with risk factors that independently predict composite measures of well-being. Furthermore, certain outcomes were not independently predicted by a single risk factor, but were predicted by the number of present risk factors, indicating that programs seeking to change these outcomes should use cumulative risk models to select families. Lastly, interaction results demonstrated that the effects of risk factors on the development of certain poor outcomes were dependent on the presence of other risk factors, indicating that programs shown to affect these outcomes should be more specifically targeted to families with risk profiles that indicate that they are most in need of the interventions.en-UShome visiting programstargeted interventionsearly risk factorsdissertation or thesis