The Quality of Children's Home Environment and Attachment Security in Indonesia

Abstract

The authors examined the relation of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory (B. M. Caldwell & R. H. Bradley, 1984) for 0- to 6-year-old Sundanese Indonesian children with the quality of the mother-child attachment relationship (n = 44) and attachment-related behaviors during play interactions (n = 37) and with characteristics of the Indonesian caregiving context (N = 77). Results showed that infants and toddlers with secure attachment relationships lived in higher quality home environments than did children with insecure attachment relationships. In particular, children with insecure-resistant attachment relationships lived in more unsafe and less organized homes with less play material available. For preschoolers, a lower quality home environment predicted more negativity and noncompliance toward their mothers in a play setting outside the home. With regard to the caregiving context, the socioeconomic status of the family was strongly related to the quality of preschoolers' home environment. Scores on the HOME Inventory for Infants/Toddlers and the HOME Inventory for Early Childhood were related to other culture-specific contextual characteristics for 0- to 6-year old Indonesian children as well. As a whole, the HOME was a good indicator of the general quality of the Sundanese Indonesian home environment.