title: Predicting retarded students' short-term growth from home environment.
abstract: This investigation sought to determine whether change in mentally retarded students' developmental status and adjustment could be predicted by variables of the psychological home environment for periods of one and two years. Over 120 trainable mentally retarded (TMR) and over 220 educable mentally retarded and educationally handicapped (EMR-EH) children were subjects. Annual interviews were conducted in the homes. Environmental data consisted of the Caldwell HOME (for TMR) or Henderson HELPS (for EMR-EH), the Moos Family Environment Scale, and the Home Quality Rating Scale. Eight dependent student variables included three factor scores of the Adaptive Behavior Scale as indicators of developmental status. Five adjustment scores included the two maladaptive scores from the Adaptive Behavior Scale and impact on family, psychological adjustment and social adjustment scores. First year student scores were partialled out to permit prediction of second and third year scores from first year environment scores. Stepwise multiple regression showed that environmental variables significantly improved R2 for all eight student scores in the second year and six to eight in the third year for the TMR group and six of eight in the second year and all eight in the third for the EMR-EH group. Data were interpreted to favor a concept of parent-child relationships as a continuously interactive phenomenon.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012931:Social Environment