Preliminary Development of the Parent Involvement in Early Learning Scale for Low-Income Families Enrolled in a Child-Development-Focused Home Visiting Program

Abstract

Salient early intervention approaches for children below the age of 3 years, such as home visiting, seek to strengthen the pivotal role that parents play in fostering their young children’s early learning. Yet, measures that identify and monitor the ways in which low-income parents support toddlers’ learning experiences are lacking. Without parent involvement measures for toddlers, evidence-based advancement of home visiting with regard to this key outcome is restricted. This study undertook a mixed-method approach to obtain perceptions of involvement behaviors from ethnic minority home visitors who were associated with a national home visiting program and to translate these perceptions into a meaningful, preliminary measure for children aged 2 and 3 years. Named the Parent Involvement in Early Learning scale, a statistical approach combining classical test and item response theories produced preliminary single dimensions of home-based involvement for the English and Spanish translations. This study is presented as a first step in raising awareness of parent involvement for this age group and directing future research.