Development and preliminary validation of the adolescent homework inventory

Abstract

Homework is defined as work assigned to students by teachers that is to be completed outside of school hours (Cooper, 1989). Homework completion has been shown to have both positive and negative effects at school and home (Hoover-Dempsey, Battiato, Walker, Reed, DeJong, & Jones, 2001; Cooper, 1989; Cooper & Valentine, 2001). Given that homework will continue to be assigned, and that positive outcomes may be greater than negative outcomes, it is important to identify and address difficulties students face in homework completion. Measures are available to identify homework problems in elementary school students, but current measures available for middle and high school students are unreliable or do not include classroom behavior related to homework completion or studying. The purpose of the proposed study was to create a psychometrically sound measure for adolescent homework problems. A pool of questions was developed and administered to adolescents and their parents. Initial item elimination and Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) were conducted to determine the underlying factor structure. EFA resulted in 3 factors for both versions: Negative Homework Behavior, Proactive Behavior, and Parent Contingencies. A second sample of participants was collected to validate the factor structure and examine construct validity with the Homework Problem Checklist (HPC; Anesko, Shoiock, Ramirez, & Levine, 1987). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated poor model fit of six individual factor models, as sample size was too small. Construct validity was good between the Adolescent Homework Inventory and Homework Problem Checklist.