Preliminary Development of the Parent Involvement in Early Learning Scale for Low-Income Families Enrolled in a Child-Development-Focused Home Visiting Program

Abstract

Salient early intervention approaches for children below the age of 3 years, such as home visiting, seek to strengthen the pivotal role that parents play in fostering their young children's early learning. Yet, measures that identify and monitor the ways in which low-income parents support toddlers' learning experiences are lacking. Without parent involvement measures for toddlers, evidence-based advancement of home visiting with regard to this key outcome is restricted. This study undertook a mixed-method approach to obtain perceptions of involvement behaviors from ethnic minority home visitors who were associated with a national home visiting program and to translate these perceptions into a meaningful, preliminary measure for children aged 2 and 3 years. Named the Parent Involvement in Early Learning scale, a statistical approach combining classical test and item response theories produced preliminary single dimensions of home-based involvement for the English and Spanish translations. This study is presented as a first step in raising awareness of parent involvement for this age group and directing future research.

The Effect of Parental Involvement and Socioeconomic Status on Junior School Students’ Academic Achievement and School Behavior in China

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that home-based involvement and academic socialization positively influenced academic achievement and school behavior ( Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Chen and Gregory, 2009 ; Hill and Tyson, 2009 ; Benner et al, 2016 ). For example, Manz et al (2014) found that a mother’s home-based involvement increased children’s interpersonal skills and decreased the incidence of negative classroom behaviors. Hayes (2012) found that home-based involvement increased adolescents’ academic achievement.…”

Who Is Centered? A Systematic Review of Early Childhood Researchers’ Descriptions of Children and Caregivers From Linguistically Minoritized Communities

“…. linkages regarding DLL’s English language proficiency and its negative relation to both internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors,” Hagan-Burke et al, 2016, p. 93); (b) the impact of not speaking English on children’s and caregivers’ access to educational services (e.g., Guarino et al, 2010); (c) the negative impact of not being “acculturated” to European American culture (e.g., “Acculturation in the United States, particularly in the educational system, is associated with parents’ deliberate attention to develop young children’s school readiness,” Manz et al, 2014, p. 187); and (d) parents’ limited English skills and SES when coming to the United States—thought to negatively affect children’s academic success (e.g., Bruder et al, 1991).…”

Early growth trajectories of children's approaches to learning: The contribution of parent and family characteristics

“…The FIQ is a brief parent‐report measure that assesses home‐based as well as school‐based involvement in children's education, and has been shown to predict children's positive learning behaviors (Fantuzzo et al, ; Manz, Fantuzzo, & Power, ). Finally, the Parent Involvement in Early Learning Scale (Manz, Gernhart, Bracaliello, Pressimone, & Eisenberg, ) was developed to assess parent involvement as a unidimensional construct, using items very similar to those used in the ECLS‐K.…”