Analysis of a Causal Model about the Relationship of Environmental Variables to Children's Intellectual Ability

아동의 지적능력과 환경변인 간의 인과 모형 분석

This study examined the characteristics of the relationship of home environment variables and children's intellectual ability. Two studies were conducted: Study I examined the predictability of home environment variables for children's intellectual ability by children's age and the correlations between environment variables and children's intellectual ability. Study II investigated causal relationships among the variables which are supposed to affect children's intellectual ability. The subjects of this study were 240 children at age four, six and eight attending nursery schools, kindergartens and elementary schools and their mothers. Instruments included the Inventory of Home Stimulation (HOME), inventory of sociodemographic variables, and the K-Binet scale. The results obtained from this study were as follows: 1) Home environment variables had a significant positive correlation (.36 ~ .78) with children's intellectual ability. 2) The home environmental variables that significantly predicted children's intellectual ability differed according to children's age. That is, play materials, breadth of experience, and quality of language environment were predictive of children's intellectual ability at age four, while parent's education, developmental stimulation, and play materials were predictive at age six. Economic status of the home, need gratification, avoidance of restriction, and emotional climate were predictive at age eight. 3) The causal model of home environment affecting children's intellectual ability was formulated by exogenous variables (parent education and economic status of the home) and by endogenous variables (direct stimulation, indirect stimulation and the emotional climate of the home). 4) The results of the analysis of the causal model showed that the kind of variables that affected children's intellectual ability directly differed according to children's age. That is, direct stimulation and parent's education affected children's intellectual ability directly at age four and six, while the economic status of the home and indirect stimulation affected intellectual ability directly at age eight. The amount of variance that explained children's intellectual ability increased with increase in children's age.