ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO CLUSTERING AND SCORING THE BAYLEY INFANT BEHAVIOR RECORD

One hundred eighty three black, low-income infants were assessed on th e Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) at 12 mon ths and on the Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI) and Infant Behavi or Record (IBR) at 13 months. Ninety infants were retested at 25 month s. Factor analysis of the IBR at 13 months yielded three factors simil ar in content to those found for middle-class infants by Matheny (1980 ). A comparison of the two sets of clusters-one derived from Matheny, the other from this study-indicated that the Matheny (1980) attention cluster was the strongest predictor of 25-month MDI and the only one t o add significantly to 13-month MDI in predicting 25-month MDI. Althou gh clusters relating to affect and arousal related to HOME scores, att ention did not, suggesting that attention may be more constitutionally than environmentally based. Analyses of suspect ratings demonstrated the validity of this approach and indicated high suspect ratings for t his sample on hyporeactivity.