Quality of home environment and development of children: A study using "HOME" inventory

Abstract

The preschool version of the HOME Inventory (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment, Caldwell & Bradley, 1984) was used in a group of Portuguese preschool aged children and their families, all of which participated in the European Child Care and Education Study (ECCE). The purpose of this study was twofold and started by the study of the psychometric properties of the HOME Inventory. The validity of the HOME Inventory was estimated and a factor structure emerged which was conceptually identical to the original one, although the number of subscales was reduced. Correlations of HOME global scores with other markers of family quality were moderate to high. The results obtained indicated that the instrument is relevant for the Portuguese cultural context and an adequate measure of quality of home environments of Portuguese families. A second step consisted in the analysis of the predictive power of the HOME global score regarding results of the participating children in the cognitive domain and adaptive behaviour, together with other relevant variables from the ecological context of the child, as well as with the child’s characteristics. HOME scores were found to be the only significant predictor when results on the cognitive domain were considered and the most significant predictor for the results in adaptive behaviour.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v23i2.331