The Effect of Home Environment on Nursery School Behavior

The author, in a previous paper (i), presented some findings from the Fels Research Institute concerning the effects of democracy in the home upon the behavior of the nursery school child. The present report is supplementary; it includes the study of a wider variety of home conditions and employs a more elaborate battery of ratings of the child's behavior. The children in the present study are not identical with those in the previous study although there is some overlap of the two groups. From the records of the Institute, the Nursery School Behavior ratings of all the children between the age of 36 months and 60 months were selected. In most cases, there were several ratings on each child during that interval. In such a case, the rating closest to 48 months of age was selected. These ratings were then paired with parent behavior ratings made by the Fels Home Visitor. The parent rating most nearly contemporary with the nursery school rating was selected. These procedures provided a group of 56 cases, on whom both nursery school ratings and ratings of the home environment were available.