Brief in-Home Assessments of Low-Income Mothers and Children using a New Affection Subscale of the HOME Inventory

Family services providers and researchers have a great need for efficient and valid assessment instruments. This secondary analysis explored whether the validity of a brief observational screener of mother-child interactions would be supported with self-report data concerning family functioning. A subset of participants in the Illinois Families Study (n = 193; 75% African American) was observed in interaction with their children (ages 0–5) in their homes. Parent-child relationship qualities were assessed with eight items from the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory-Infant/Toddler version, presented as a new Affection subscale of the HOME. Exploratory multivariate analyses indicate neighborhood disorder, mothers’ emotional disengagement, stress, and spanking were significant predictors of in-home observations. Implications for the utility of a brief screener for parent-child interactive behavior are discussed.