Preliminary psychometric evidence of the Greek adaptation to the EC-CC HOME scale for use in institutional environments
Main Article Content
Abstract
Although lacking in official figures, latest reports from NGOs highlight that Greece has over 85 institutional settings that house more than 2,500 children, excluding unaccompanied minors entering the system continuously for the past few years. Given the impact that institutional care has been found to have on psychological and cognitive outcomes, the authors make the case for the adaptation of Early Childhood Child Care HOME (EC-CC-HOME) a world-renowned instrument that assesses children’s child-care environment. In this instance, we have adapted the child-care version of HOME to assess the physical and organisations aspects of the residential environment, following the permission and through collaboration with the developer. This brief report presents some of the preliminary evidence of the first step undertaken towards the full adaptation of EC-CC-HOME in Greek and for use in institutional environments; participants were 29 children residing in such environments. Preliminary results on the psychometric characteristics of the measure, especially in relation to the learning aspect of the environment presented here, hold promise. This is an especially important first indication of how the measure works in view of the imminent adaptation of the scale to be used with institutional environments where children can benefit greatly from such a measure. Issues in relation to good practices in providing evidence for the psychometric characteristics of measures are briefly discussed as part of this investigation.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
- Browne K, Hamilton-Giachritsis C, Johnson R, et al. Child health: overuse of institutional care for children in Europe. British Medical Journal, 2006, 332(7539): 485. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7539.485
- Roots Research Foundation (RRF). Mapping the institution of closed protection and protection of children with disabilities, Athens: RRF, ISBN 978-618-82169-0-7, 2015.
- Dennis W and Najarian P. Infant development under environmental handicap. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 1957, 71: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093705
- Goldfarb W. Effects of psychological deprivation in infancy and subsequent stimulation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1945, 102: 18-33. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.102.1.18
- Van IJzendoorn MH, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ and Juffer F. Plasticity of growth in height, weight and head circumference: Meta-analytic evidence of massive catch-up of children’s physical growth after adoption. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 2007, 28: 334-343. https://doi.org/10.1097/DBP.0b013e31811320aa
- Johnson R, Browne K and Hamilton-Giachritsis C. Young children in institutional care at risk of harm. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 2006, 7(1): 34-60. https://doi.org10.1177/1524838005283696
- Rutter M, Beckett C, Castle J, et al. Effects of profound early institutional deprivation: An overview of findings from a UK longitudinal study of Romanian adoptees. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2007, 4(3): 332-350. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405620701401846
- Smyke AT, Koga SF, Johnson DE, et al. The caregiving context in institution-reared and family-reared infants and toddlers in Romania. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2007, 48(2): 210-218. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01694.x
- Ellis BH, Fisher PA and Zaharie S. Predictors of Disruptive Behavior, Developmental Delays, Anxiety, and Affective Symptomatology AmongInstitutionally Reared Romanian Children, Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2004, 43(10): 1283-1292. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.chi.0000136562.24085.160
- Bos KJ, Zeanah CH, Smyke AT, et al. Stereotypies in children with a history of early institutional care. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine, 2010, 164(5): 406-411. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2010.47
- Rutter M. Adverse preadoption experiences and psychological outcomes. Psychological Issues in Adoption. Research and Practice, 2005, 3: 47-67.
- Roy P, Rutter M and Pickles A. Institutional care: risk from family background or pattern of rearing?. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 2000, 41(2): 139-149. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00555
- Vorria P, Papaligoura Z, Dunn J, et al. Early experiences and attachment relationships of Greek infants raised in residential group care. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2003, 44: 1208-1220. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00202
- Caldwell B and Bradley R. Administration manual: Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory, 2003. http://fhdri.clas.asu.edu/home/index.html
- Melhuish EC, Phan MB, Sylva K, et al. Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Preschool Centre Experience upon Literacy and Numeracy Development in Early Primary School. Journal of Social Issues, 2008, 64(1): 95-114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.00550.x
- McDonald RP. Test theory: A unified treatment. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999.
- Carlson KD and Herdman AO. Understanding the impact of convergent validity on research results. Organizational Research Methods, 2012, 15(1): 17-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428110392383
- Sammons P, Smees R, Taggart B, et al.The Early Years Transition and Special Educational Needs (EYTSEN) Project: Technical Paper 1 - Special Needs Across the Pre-School Period. London: DfES / Institute of Education, University of London, 2002.
- Anders Y, Rossbach H, Weinert S, et al. Home and preschool learning environments and their relations to the development of early numeracy skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2012, 27: 231-244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.08.003