The report looks at Home-Start, a scheme set up more than 30 years ago that offers volunteer home visiting support to families with children aged under five.
Researchers compared the progress of a group of 80 families who received home visits from trained Home-Start volunteers for an average of two hours a week with similar families who had access to NHS support from health visitors.
Eleven months after they were first interviewed, four out of five mothers in the group said that visits by a Home-Start volunteer had helped them to cope with stress.
Dr Colette McAuley, who led the research team from Queen's University Belfast, said, 'We have learned a great deal from the study about the day-to-day lives of young families under stress and their support needs.'
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