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Bradley, R.H., Caldwell, B.M., & Corwyn, R.F. (2003). The child care HOME inventories: Assessing the quality of family child care homes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 18(3), 294-309.
This article explored the use of assessments in family child care settings. The Home Observation of the Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory was featured.
The Study
- Less is known about family child care providers compared to center-based providers. It is more difficult to collect data on family providers. The structure of their work environment lends to this difficulty.
- There are several instruments that can be used to collect information on family child care but many require substantial training to use as well as extensive periods of observation.
- The HOME Inventory can be delivered quickly and gives a fast assessment of the quality of family child care in a given setting. It captures the social, physical, and organization features of the caregiving environment.
- There are five major themes of caregiving highlighted in the HOME Inventory:
- Safety,
- Stimulation,
- Support,
- Structure, and
- Surveillance.
The Methods
- HOME was used with caregivers of 377 infants in family child care and with 274 caregivers of three year-old in family child care. Ninety percent of the sample was Caucasian. Seventy percent of the caregivers were not related to the children.
The Findings
- The HOME Inventory showed reliability and validity for accurately scoring observations in the family child care setting.
- Time spent training observers on how to use the HOME Inventory was far shorter than for other scales, yet it yielded over 90% interrater reliability rates.
- HOME does not provide deep coverage of caregiver-child interactions but it is an accurate measurement of a child’s experience in care.
R2P Evaluation
The HOME Inventory was featured and appeared to be a good example of an easy-to-use tool for use in family child care settings. The article detailed testing on the instrument to address its reliability and validity
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