Effects of home-based early intervention on child outcomes: A randomized controlled trial of Parents as Teachers in Switzerland.

Home-visiting programs have gained increasing importance in family-centered prevention and intervention. However, few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying early intervention treatment effects. The goal of this study is to analyze the mediating role of maternal sensitivity in enhancing language development with the home-visiting program Parents as Teachers (PAT). Data were collected and analyzed within the ongoing, long-term ZEPPELIN study, a randomized controlled trial with 251 participating at-risk families. Via longitudinal mediation analysis, we examined whether effects of the PAT on receptive and expressive language outcomes at 24 and 36 months were mediated by maternal sensitivity at 12 months. Within a moderated mediation framework, we investigated whether the level of family psychosocial stress affects this mediation. Results showed that intervention effects on language outcomes are mediated by maternal sensitivity-weakly and through specific pathways. Moderation and moderated mediation analyses indicated that effects of the PAT and also specific mediation effects increase with the level of psychosocial stress. Implications of the results for practice are discussed.

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PurposeIn this study, the authors identify how formal institutional environments in destination countries matter to franchise chains as they internationalize. The institutional environment of the destination countries of franchise chains is characterized according to three institutional dimensions necessary to attract international investment – public governance, ease of doing business and legal processes – and analyzed in the context of regional and global franchise expansion.Design/methodology/approachThe descriptive quantitative study involved 625 franchise chains from Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Russia, South Africa and the United States, with a total of 2,939 observations.FindingsResults suggest that franchise chains from emerging markets are guided by the institutional conditions of ease of doing business and the quality of legal processes in global expansion and guided by ease of doing business, quality of legal processes and governance in regional expansion. On the other hand, franchise chains from developed markets are guided by the ease of doing business, quality of legal processes and governance in global expansion and governance and ease of doing business in regional expansion.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample included only franchise chains associated with organizations that represent franchises in their countries of origin, and the study does not analyze the effect of institutional distance between countries of origin and destination.Originality/valueThis study identifies the formal institutional characteristics that explain selection and commitment in international markets by franchise chains from different countries. The contribution is in analyzing the phenomenon through the lens of institutional theory and showing, through a global sample, that institutions matter to franchise chains from different types of countries (developed and emerging) and with different strategies for internationalization (global and regional).

The present study examined the effect of early life stress (ELS) on the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) methylation, the associations between NR3C1 methylation and behavior problems, and the effect of the program Parents as Teachers (PAT) on NR3C1 methylation. Participants included 132 children, 72 assigned to the PAT intervention group and 60 to the PAT control group. Children were aged 3 years, and were living in psychosocially at-risk families. We assessed NR3C1 methylation of the NGFI-A binding regions of exon 1F via sodium bisulfite sequencing from saliva DNA. Results indicated that (a) children living in families receiving PAT had decreased methylation at one single cytosine–guanine dinucleotides (CpG) site; (b) current maternal depressive symptoms and parental disagreement were predictive of increased methylation of mean NGFI-A and three single CpG sites; and (c) increased methylation of mean NGFI-A and one single CpG site was significantly associated with increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In addition, mean NGFI-A was a mediator of the association between parental disagreement and a child's affective problems. These results suggest that PAT may contribute to preventing NR3C1 methylation in preschool children living in psychosocially at-risk situations, and confirm previous findings on the associations between ELS, NR3C1 methylation, and behavior problems.