Effect of home environment on academic achievement in child protective service-involved children: Results from the second national survey of child and adolescent well-being study

Abstract

BackgroundChildren involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) have been shown to have lower academic achievement. It is unclear whether certain qualities of the home environment can optimize academic achievement in this vulnerable population. ObjectiveThis study sought to determine whether home environments with higher levels of emotional support and cognitive stimulation predict later academic achievement and whether this relationship is moderated by placement type (i.e. biological/adoptive parent care, kinship care, or non-kinship foster care). Participants and SettingThis study included 1,206 children from the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW-II) who were involved with CPS between 2–7 years of age. MethodsMultivariate analyses were completed to examine the effect of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) score on later Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-ACH) scores. Moderation analyses were conducted to determine the effect of placement type on this relationship. ResultsAlthough these relationships between HOME scores and WJ-ACH scores were significant in bivariate analyses, they were not statistically significant in multivariate analyses, primarily due to the variable of household income. Although children placed primarily in non-kinship foster care demonstrated higher WJ-ACH scores for Passage Comprehension and Letter-Word Identification subscales, placement type did not appear to moderate the relationship between HOME scores and academic achievement. ConclusionChild- and caregiver-level factors, as well as financial resources available in the environment, may account for the relationship between home environment and academic achievement.