Schultz, DavidShanty, Lisa2023-07-072023-07-072022-01-0112577http://hdl.handle.net/11603/28479The infant and early childhood home visiting field intends to mitigate the detrimental effects of poverty on young children’s development by using a two-generational approach that supports both children and their caregivers. One of the central goals of home visiting is promoting positive parent-child interaction. A best practice for home visitors in working to achieve this goal is the facilitation of parent-child interaction, or parent-child coaching, which provides parents an opportunity to learn through modeling, practice, feedback, and reflection. The limited research on parent-child coaching in the home visiting field has found that home visits often lose focus on this topic area. However, very little is known about staff experiences with coaching in the home and what supports they receive in this area (i.e., supervision and ongoing professional learning). This study used an explanatory, sequential mixed-methods approach to explore staff’s beliefs, attitudes, and experiences with coaching and their existing and desired training and support in this area. Forty-one home visitors and supervisors from Early Head Start (EHS) and Healthy Families America (HFA) programs throughout Maryland completed online surveys, and 15 completed virtual interviews. Surveys revealed a high self-reported frequency of coaching in home visits, and interviews revealed beliefs and attitudes consistent with a family-centered, parent empowerment approach to supporting parent-child interaction. Interviews also revealed nuances in coaching frequency, with variation due primarily to family stressors, family attitudes and expectations, and most notably, disruptions to home visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Home visiting staff generally reported feeling satisfied with the training they’ve received in parent-child coaching (or supervising this activity), and home visitors reported feeling well-supported by their supervisors, with some room for improvement in the quality of professional coaching. Limitations are discussed with regard to small sample size, lack of observational data, and complications in data collection and interpretation due to the ongoing pandemic. This study, however, makes an important contribution to the limited literature and can inform training developers and program administrators on how to best support their staff in achieving this key program goal and, ultimately, improving family outcomes.application:pdfThis item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by UMBC for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please see http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/repro.php or contact Special Collections at speccoll(at)umbc.eduText