The Home Environments of Children in the United States Part I: Variations by Age, Ethnicity, and Poverty Status

Abstract

Although measures of the home environment have gained wide acceptance in the child development literature, what constitutes the "average" or 'typical" home environment in the United States, and how this differs across ethnic groups and poverty status is not known. Item-level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on four age-related versions of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment-Short Form (HOME-SF) from five biennial assessments (1986-1994) were analyzed for the total sample and for four major ethnic groups: European Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans. The percentages of homes receiving credit on each item of all four versions of the HOME-SF are described. For the majority of items at all four age levels differences between poor and nonpoor families were noted. Differences were also obtained among African American, European American, and Hispanic American families, but the magnitude of the effect for poverty status was greater than for ethnicity, and usually absorbed most of the ethnic group effects on HOME-SF items. For every item at every age, the effects of poverty were proportional across European American, African American, and Hispanic American groups.

Impact of Prenatal Chlorpyrifos Exposure on Neurodevelopment in the First 3 Years of Life Among Inner-City Children

“…Such a decline was observed previously for infants raised in low-income families and communities, independent of chemical exposures, 37,55,56 in part because toddlers from low-income homes have less access to developmentally stimulating environments and may be delayed in acquiring language and problem-solving skills. [57][58][59][60][61][62][63] Although children with low HOME scores did have significantly lower BSID-II scores in this study, there was no indication that the chlorpyrifos effects were either exacerbated or remediated by the quality of the home environment. The finding that a large proportion of children scored in the delayed range on the MDI, although consistent with other reports for similar populations, 64,65 is worrisome, especially because the MDI is often given more importance than the PDI.…”

Determinants of early cognitive development: hierarchical analysis of a longitudinal study

“…Poor quality of home environment stimulation can adversely affect children's development, leading to cognitive deficits 22,23 and subsequently to behavioral disorders 37,38 . However, one should bear in mind that the HOME inventory, although widely applied in a variety of cultural backgrounds, may not be perfectly suitable for measuring the quality of the environment of Brazilian children, especially those from low-income families.…”

Parental Expectations and Children's Academic Performance in Sociocultural Context

“…However, research conducted to date suggests that Latino parents are less likely than European Americans to become involved in certain kinds of supportive activities with their children. For example, Latino parents are significantly less likely to read to their young children than are European American parents (Bradley et al 2001;Raikes et al 2006). To a large extent, this pattern may be a function of language barriers, low levels of schooling, and lack of knowledge about American education among Latino immigrants (Cooper et al 1999;García Coll et al 2002).…”