Relationship Between Home Musical Environment and Selected Musical Attributes of Second-Grade Children

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between home musical environment and musical attributes among second-grade (primarily) Mexican-American school children. Parental musical involvement with child, attitude toward music, and other aspects of the home musical environment were examined as sources of variance in tonal and rhythmic perception and school musical achievement. Data from 116 students and their parents were analyzed by means of setwise multiple regression. Although analyses revealed that scores on the Home Musical Environmental Scale (HOMES) were not significantly related to tonal or rhythmic perception, the results did show a statistically significant relationship, p < .001, between scores on the HOMES and musical achievement as assessed by the subjects' music teachers. The scores on the HOMES account for 20% of the variance in musical achievement scores. Additionally, an important finding in this study is that not all home musical environmental variables are related in the same degree to musical achievement.