Measuring Infants' Home Environment: The IT-HOME for Infants Between Birth and 12 Months in Four National Data Sets

Objective. This article examines new conceptually derived subscales for the Infant-Toddler Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (IT-HOME) Inventory. Design. Data from 4 diverse national longitudinal data sets were used to assess several newly created subscales: the Infant Health and Development Program (N = 872), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (N = 1,279), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,374), and the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (N = 258). Validity and reliability of the newly created subscales were assessed. Results. In total, 7 new subscales emerged. Analyses demonstrate overall consistency in validity and reliability of these subscales. Conclusions. Although both observational and self-report items were included in analyses, observational items were in the majority. Researchers are encouraged to include observational items in future implementations of the IT-HOME. If designers of large-scale surveys find the cost of training observers to administer the IT-HOME prohibitive, they should consider selecting subscales rather than the entire Inventory.