%0 Journal Article
%T Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development: A Cross-Cultural Study between American and Lebanese Children
%A Diala Ammar
%A Gabriel A. Acevedo
%A Alberto Cordova
%J Child Development Research
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/152094
%X Considerable efforts have been devoted to map the relations between the home environment and selected aspects of child¡¯s development. A recent instrument was developed that aimed at assessing the affordances in the home environment, the AHEMD-SR. Although the AHEMD-SR gave insight into affordances in the home, it was focused on two specific populations from the United States and Portugal. Currently, there is limited research regarding the validity of this instrument when used in different cultures. The purpose of this study was to compare a sample of Middle Eastern children to the normative sample that was used to validate the AHEMD. Results showed a significance difference between the socioeconomic statuses between the groups. Concerning factor analysis, results showed that the Lebanese group had five factors loading as did the American/Portuguese sample but with variables loading differently. Interestingly, the Lebanese group showed higher scores for affordances inside the home such replica toys and games. Our findings show that the state of the environment may play a role in the affordances and development. Future work is needed to look at the specific loading and possible variables that may be included in the AHMED-SR to look at other cultures that may have other limitations. 1. Introduction Recently there has been much attention investigating the relationship between motor development and the home environment. Perhaps the most notable contribution in this area is the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) inventory created by Caldwell and Bradley [1] that is used in numerous studies to examine environmental effects on cognitive and social development. Although the HOME inventory was originally designed to specifically examine the relationship of the home to the child¡¯s motor development, one of the most striking and consistent HOME findings has been the strong relationship of the availability of stimulating play materials to motor development rather than the ¡°global measures of environmental quality such as SES (socioeconomic status)¡±[2, page 217]. Although specific motor development measures in the home have been used (e.g., [3¨C6], Parks and Bradley, 1991,) there is still minimal information available in relation to the multidimensional effects of the home on motor development. In a review, Abbott et al. [7] concluded that the home environment is an important factor contributing to infant motor development but still little research exists examining this relationship. It was suggested that the need for ¡°a valid measure
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdr/2013/152094/