Evaluating Children's Home Environment Among Immigrant Families

Monday, 22 July 2013

Hwey-Fang Liang, PhD, RN
Department of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Chia-Yi Campus, Puzi city, Chiayi County, Taiwan
Kuang-Ming Wu, EdD
Early Childhood Education, National Chia-Yi University, Ming-Shong, Chia-Yi County, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to realize outcomes of the modified Chinese-HOME Inventory.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to realize the evaluation of home environment using modified Chinese-HOME Inventory.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to modify and revise the HOME inventory for Taiwanese school children and evaluate home environment among vulnerable ethnic families.

Methods: Two hundred immigrant mother’s families with 6-12ys children in the Western area of Taiwan were recruited in the study. In order to define the HOME inventory, qualitative study in vulnerable ethnic group family, and recorded after interviews and participation observation. All of quantitative collected data were managed and analyzed using SPSS version 18.0.

Results: Most children’s caregivers were mothers who originally were Vietnamese or Mainland China. And on the average, they had an educational level lower than elementary or junior high. The mean age of these mothers was 33.66 (SD=4.38, range 21-47). The mean age of their children was 8.50 (SD=1.75, range 6-12) year- old. The reliability of the scale was .85 with Cronbach's alpha value. And, reliabilities of all subscales were .63, .53, .51, .61, .61, .40, .68, and .68. The revised HOME Inventory was correlated with children’s age (r=.22, p<.001) and body height (r=.16, p=.01). Regression analysis showed that child sex (β=-2.63, t=-3.13, p=.002), child age (β=1.03, t=4.01, p<.001), father educational level (β=2.44, t=2.77, p=.01), mother educational level (β=2.30, t=2.36, p=.02), and grandparent(s) as main child caregiver when compared with parent(s) as main caregiver (β=-4.57, t=-2.63, p=.01) were included in the model. A total of 22% of the variance of the child learning environment could be explained by child sex, child age, child BMI, main caregiver, family type, mother and father age, mother and father educational level, and mother race (F=5.76, p<.001).

Conclusion: The outcome could identify the aspects of the home environment, as indexed by the HOME subscales. The results revealed the strengths and the weaknesses of home environment of vulnerable ethnic group and could provide cultural specific home education for target population.