Resource
 |  2025

Staff Turnover in Early Childhood Home Visiting: Using Survival Analysis to Understand the Role of Drivers and Dimensions of Professional Well-Being

Authors: Anne Lilly, Alexandra Cirillo Lilli, Yuxin Zhu, Allison West, Jill Brown, Sarah Bilyj, and Cynthia Minkovitz

This article explores how staff turnover is a major challenge in early childhood home visiting programs. With this study, we assessed what drivers and dimensions of home visitor professional well-being relate to staff turnover in home visiting. We used survey data from all home visitors in one Northeastern U.S. state (n = 176) and program administrative data. We used survival analysis to determine which drivers and dimensions of home visitor professional well-being were related to staff turnover over a 5.5-year observation period. Home visitors who reported higher program functionality (opportunities for growth and achievement, role clarity and cooperation among colleagues) were more likely to remain at their organization. Home visitors with more prior experience in home visiting were more likely to remain, while those with greater intent to leave were more likely to leave their organization. Home visiting leadership may promote staff retention in their programs by enhancing opportunities for growth and achievement, role clarity and cooperation among colleagues in their programs. (author abstract)