Defining, Measuring, and Supporting Family Economic Well-Being in Early Childhood Home Visiting: A Review of Research and Practices

• The HomeEc project’s definition of family economic well-being is multi-faceted in that it focuses on economics and the related socio-emotional implications that families face. Specifically, a family is defined as having economic well-being when its self-defined needs and goals match its resources across four key constructs: basic needs, financial control, financial security and shock absorption, and employment security and satisfaction. A family’s ability to achieve economic well-being can be influenced by structural conditions that create inequity (such as historic and systemic racism, and gender inequity) and by external economic forces, which can directly and strongly impact a family’s economic resources.
• Many structural (such as the economic context), household (such as family relationships), and individual (such as physical and mental health) factors relate to family economic well-being and families’ experiences of the four constructs. Changes in family economic well-being may—in part—either be caused by such factors or influence the factors, although the directionality of these relationships is not well understood.
• To measure family economic well-being, researchers and agency staff generally use data from surveys or participant questionnaires to assess aspects of the four constructs. However, there is a lack of consistent definitions of measures and how and when to assess the way outcomes change over time, and over what time horizon.
• The literature and document reviews revealed 10 practices designed to support family economic well-being that could potentially be implemented or expanded upon by ECHV agencies and build on the strengths of existing service offerings. The most common activities across practices were case management, coaching, and financial education.
• The literature and document reviews highlighted future research directions that will fill gaps in understanding and measuring economic well-being, such as disentangling the relationships among factors related to family economic well-being, defining measures of economic well-being and the appropriate time horizons for measurement, and identifying appropriate strategies for collecting data on sensitive topics such as poor housing conditions or material hardship.

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