Evaluación de los contextos familiars y extrafamiliares en los años preescolares: escalas HOME y ECERS

Resumen

En la investigación que se preocupa por analizar los determinantes del desarrollo, los investigadores ponen frecuentemente su atención en las variables que afectan a la vida de los niños a través de las características sociodemográficas de los padres (nivel educativo, profesión, sexo, etc.), y en los detalles más intrincados de las interacciones entre adulto y niño. Siendo esos dos niveles de análisis importantes, existe aún un tercer nivel que tiene también el máximo interés: el estudio de las características de los entornos en los que los niños pasan su vida cotidiana. En el presente trabajo se aborda ese nivel de análisis y se presentan las escalas HOME y ECERS, que evalúan respectivamente la calidad de los contextos familiar y preescolar. Se presentan las características de ambas escalas, algunos ejemplos de su utilización en la investigación evolutiva y una valoración crítica de cada una de ellas. Además, se sugieren vías para situar estos instrumentos en el contexto de otras herramientas de investigación que exploran aspectos no incluidos en HOME ni en ECERS.

Abstract

When trying to analyse the determinants of development, researchers often focus their attention on those variables affecting children's lives through the sociodemographic characteristics of their parents (educational level, profession, sex, etc.), and on some of the most intricate details of adult-child interactions. Important as these levels of analysis might be, there is still a third level of the highest interest: To study the characteristics of those environments where children spend most of their time. This paper adopts such a level of analysis and describes the HOME and ECERS scales, which assess the quality of family and preschool contexts, respectively. The features of both scales are presented, as well as some examples of their use and a critical assessment of each. Also, suggestions are made on how these instruments could be used within the context of other research tools that explore aspects not included in HOME or ECERS.

Extended summary

Very often, when analyzing the determinants of development, developmental psychologist consider what may be called “macro” and “micro” variables following Bronfrenbrenner's (1979) well-known terminology. Social class, level of study, sex, etc., are examples of “macro” variables. Studies in which adult-child interactions are analyzed in the highest possible detail are examples of “micro” variables. This paper adopts a level of analysis that is half-way between the two, and tries to find out the features of those contexts in which children spend most of their time during the preschool years: The family and preschool classroom. The importance of adopting such a level of analysis is underlined. At the same time, the paper also stresses the need to search for complementary research tools that allow the study of different elements influencing children and shaping their development.

This paper presents the HOME and ECERS scales which have been designed to assess family and preschool educational contexts respectively. These scales are strongly supported by the research literature, they have well-established psychometric properties, and they are used in many different countries. The paper presents the basic features of each scale, comments on different existing versions, and provides a few examples in which they have been used. In addittion, as both scales are being used in a large and ambitious research project of national and international scope, strategies and research tools used to overcome some obvious limitations shown by both scales are discussed. Some preliminary research data are provided and the research line adopted is explained.

Both HOME and ECERS have the advantage of including quite a detailed observation of the environment in which children live daily together with conversations with the children's parents and teachers. Of course, in both cases there are some problems related to how relevant some items are for our cultural environment and to the scoring of some items. The paper presents some of the adaptations introduced when using the scales in the research that is underway in Spain. Also, despite the drawbacks that each scale might present, a general positive evaluation of both HOME and ECERS scales is made.

A basic feature of educational contexts that shape the personality and development of children is their intricacy. That is why the scales presented here-or other similar scales-adequate as they might be, do not exhaust the field of the realities they aim to address. Thus it is very important that these instruments are not considered to be magic tools. It is true that they solve some of the problems researchers encounter, but they pose other problems, and still leave some questions unanswered. Consequently, it is suggested that these scales should be used as part of wider-scoped studies designed to account for the complexity of the phenomena under study.

Palabras clave:

• Familia
• preescolar
• contextos de desarrollo
• ecologyía de contextos

Keywords:

• Family
• preschool
• developmental context
• context ecology