Sosio-Economic Status, Home Environment and Preschool Children's Mental Abilities

ROZUMAH BAHARUDIN (Universiti Putra Malaysia, rozumah@putra.upm.edu.my), ROHANI ABDULLAH (Universiti Putra Malaysia, rohani_safri@yahoo.com), YEE SAW BEE (Universiti Putra Malaysia)

Abstract


This study was conducted to determine the relationship between sosioeconomic status, home environment and mental abilities of preschool children. Respondents were 34 (17 Chinese, 17 Malays) six year-old children from a Chinese and a Malay kindergarten in Parit Haji Ismail Village, Bagan Serai, Perak. The quality of the home environment was measured using Caldwell and Bradley (1984) HOME Inventory. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and Goodenough Draw-a-Man Test were used to assess the children's mental performance. The study found that at the bivariate level of analyses, father's and mother's education, family income and family size were significantly related to the HOME scores. In addition, family income showed positive correlation to children's mental scores, and family size showed inversed relationship. Significant correlation was also found between the quality of the home environment and mental scores of the children.

ABSTRAK

Kajian ini telah dijalankan untuk menentukan perkaitan di antara status sosioekonomi, persekitaran rumah dan prestasi mental kanak-kanak prasekolah. Responden terdiri daripada 34 (17 Cina, 17 Melayu) kanak-kanak yang berumur 6 tahun, daripada sebuah Tadika Cina dan sebuah Tadika Melayu di Kampung Parit Haji Ismail, Bagan Serai, Perak. Kualiti persekitaran rumah telah diukur menggunakan Inventori HOME oleh Caldwell dan Bradley (1984). 'Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children' dan 'Goodenough Draw-a-Man Test' telah digunakan untuk mengukur prestasi mental kanak-kanak. Kajian ini mendapati pada tahap analisis 'bivariate', pendidikan bapa dan ibu, pendapatan keluarga dan saiz keluarga mempunyai perkaitan yang signifikan dengan skor HOME. Pendapatan keluarga juga didapati mempunyai perkaitan positif dengan skor mental kanak-kanak, manakala saiz keluarga menunjukkan perkaitan yang negatif. Korelasi yang signifikan telah juga didapati di antara kualiti persekitaran rumah dan skor mental kanak-kanak.


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