52 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOME SCREENING QUESTIONNAIRE (HSQ)

Abstract

About 50% of children in low socio-economic status (SES) environments have school problems, many of which may be due to factors in the home. The HSQ was developed from the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) to improve the early identification of children who will have school problems. Unlike the HOME, the HSQ requires only 15 to 20 minutes of the parent's time to complete and does not require a home visit. The HSQ was developed for two age groups of children: birth to 3 years (0-3 form), and 3 to 6 years (3-6 form). 868 children (0-3 years) and 497 children (3-6 years) were screened with the HSQ. Of these, 503 in the 0-3 group and 287 in the 3-6 group were also given a HOME. The internal consistency of the HSQ is .73 for the 0-3 form and .80 for the 3-6 form. Test-retest reliability is .62 for the 0-3 form and .86 for the 3-6 form. School performance of siblings of children screened was evaluated to estimate test validity. Of the 191 siblings followed, 55% had school problems. The sensitivity of the HSQ, based on sibling school outcome, was 81% as compared with.61% for the HOME; a non-significant difference. The specificity of the HSQ was, however, significantly lower than the HOME (p <.05). There were no significant differences between the 3-6 HSQ and HOME on measures of sensitivity (81% vs. 79%) or specificity. Results suggest that the HSQ may be an efficient screening instrument of the young child's home environment.