The aim of this research is to test hypothesis linking the initial (post- birth) relationship support status of at risk families to the nature of the home-visiting preventive intervention which develops and how the two interact to impact the first two years of family development. Initial status is defined by the selection of four groups using two criteria: A. Mothers who experience both family and partnership support; B. mothers who show the first; C. mothers who show the second; and D. those who show neither. The mothers in all groups will experience a two-year home visiting intervention planned to meet the family's developmental concerns with a profile of intervention roles: Consolidating the helping relationship, articulating alternate approaches to personal adaptation and parent-child interaction, and providing direct support. The association of initial status to 1. The intervention focus; 2. the later maternal status, and 3. to the parent-infant and infant functioning in the first two years is specified by six hypotheses. On the basis of past research and the pilot study, it is expected that the positive relationship support status of the mother will enhance a sustained and working relationship with the intervenor, which in turn will affect her efficient use of family support and the quality of her partnership, and together they will impact the two-year-old's positive parent-child mutuality, the parent-child resolution of issues of autonomy, and the enhancement of the child's task orientation. The methodology includes a multifactorial design (initial status), a repeated longitudinal measurement approach, and multiple methods to measure constructs like positive parent-child mutuality, sense of separate self, and task orientation.
