Photo: Caroline Silber for Strategies for Children

Home visiting programs have been praised before, but newly released research points to a unique finding: These programs are especially beneficial for boys.

Covering this research, The New York Times reports: “Children who receive home visits are healthier, achieve more in school and have better social and emotional skills, according to a new study, released Monday by James J. Heckman, a Nobel laureate economist at the University of Chicago. Mothers have better prenatal and mental health and parenting skills.”

Heckman and his colleagues looked at the Memphis Nurse-Family Partnership home visiting program, which sends nurses to meet with first-time, low-income mothers. The program is voluntary.

The research “started in 1990, and it kept track of hundreds of kids who participated, tracking them until they were 12,” NPR reports.

“…at age 6, if you look for both boys and girls, you see both cognitive benefits – the, you know, ability to function in a classroom and to acquire knowledge and just to solve ordinary day-to-day problems – as well as social and emotional skills. That’s for both boys and girls. When you get to age 12, the primary benefit that’s lasting would be cognitive skills” for boys, Heckman said in an NPR interview. He adds:

“I think we as society are beginning to understand the greater vulnerability of boys, especially disadvantaged boys, the lower levels of resilience, if you will, to adversity. Girls, for whatever reason – and I think it may be biological or it may be because of the relationship with the mother. It’s not fully understood. But girls can actually seemingly shake the adversity off. It’s not that girls aren’t affected by early adversity, but boys seem particularly vulnerable.”

In addition, Heckman told the Times, “There is a boy problem in this country, especially for disadvantaged boys, and working with the mothers changing their environment seems to have an effect on their well-being.”

Moms also benefit. In the NPR report, Heckman says, “… looking at the first two years with the child, there does seem to be an enhanced strength of the maternal environment in the sense the mother has less anxiety. She seems better able to cope, and she herself is calmer and more maybe focused and directed towards the education of her child.”

Heckman’s research is one more reason for Congress to reauthorize the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV), which provides funding for voluntary home visiting programs — and expires in September.

MIECHV had bipartisan appeal, as Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Brad Henry, the former Democratic governor of Oklahoma, recently explained in The Hill, writing:

“American parents want their kids to grow into productive, engaged citizens. Unfortunately, children don’t come with an instruction manual—and parents who struggle with poverty, unemployment and single parenthood face extra challenges when raising their families. MIECHV provides a two-generation solution capable of helping parents and children—and the evidence shows just how profound those effects can be.”

To learn more about Heckman’s research, listen to the NPR interview.

To follow the progress of reauthorizing MIECHV, check out the website of the Home Visiting Coalition.