The Infant-Toddler HOME in the 2nd and 3rd Years of Life

Allison Sidle Fuligni, Wen Jui Han, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objective. This article describes the use of the Infant-Toddler Home Observation for Measuring the Environment measure (IT-HOME; Caldwell & Bradley, 1984) in large-scale studies with children in the 2nd and 3rd year of life and explores the psychometric properties of several conceptually based subscales created from HOME items. Design. Data from 4 large studies are examined: the 14-month and 24-month waves of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (Ns = 2,344 and 2,166, respectively), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement (N = 2,615), and the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (N = 1,217). In each individual data set, HOME items are grouped conceptually into subscales, and the subscales are analyzed with respect to internal consistency and external validity with later child developmental outcomes. Results. Four subscales were created, corresponding to the categories Parental Warmth, Parental Lack of Hostility, Support of Learning and Literacy, and Parental Verbal Skills. Bivariate partial correlations controlling for background characteristics revealed associations between Parental Warmth and Support of Learning and Literacy and children's preschool-age cognitive and language scores, and between both Parental Lack of Hostility and Support of Learning and Literacy and children's lower behavior problem scores. Conclusions. Large-scale survey-style studies can use a limited number of HOME items to create conceptually meaningful measures of children's environment and its support of children's development. However, the importance of observer-rated items in these scales argues for the desirability of including observer ratings in survey protocols.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)139-159
Number of pages21
JournalParenting
Volume4
Issue number2-3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2004

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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