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Author: Martell, Dennis Patrick
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Martell, Dennis Patrick
Home Environments of Physically Handicapped Children: An Analysis of NLSY Data
Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University, 1994
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Childhood Education, Early; Children; Children, Home Environment; Family Characteristics; Family Structure; Family Studies; Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Physical Characteristics; Poverty

More and more children with varying degrees of physical handicaps are entering the family ecosystem where they must rely on the parental subsystem for the quality of their home environment. It seems apparent that the effect the presence of a physically handicapped child has on the family would best be measured by assessing the effect this child has on the construction of his/her own home environment. A family ecosystems model is utilized to examine the quality of the home environment of the handicapped child. The family is examined in this context by controlling and assessing variations (predictive variables) in family structure as well as maternal and child characteristics. Data for this study were drawn from a larger on-going study, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1990 Data Set. The measured home environments of 1323 children aged 3 to 6 years were assessed using an adapted form of the HOME Scale. The research samples were composed of 58 physically handicapped child ren and 1265 nonhandicapped children. The central focus of this study was the family's provision of a home environment including cognitive, physical, and emotional aspects of the child's environment. T-tests, Chi-square analyses, and regression were utilized to analyze data. No statistically significant differences were found between the measured home environments provided for the physically handicapped and nonhandicapped children in this study. Additionally no statistically significant differences were found between selected groups of physically handicapped children and the control sample. The quality of the home environment provided for the physically handicapped child was found to be significantly positively correlated with the measured intelligence of the mother and significantly negatively correlated with family poverty status. The most significant finding is the strength of the relationship between the sex of the physically handicapped child and the quality of the home environment. Female physically handicapped children are provided a better home environment. The findings suggest that on the variables measured, families with physically handicapped children are very similar to families with nonhandicapped children in their provision of home environments.
Bibliography Citation
Martell, Dennis Patrick. Home Environments of Physically Handicapped Children: An Analysis of NLSY Data. Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University, 1994.