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Exploring Children's Digital Home Learning Environment: Cross-Cultural Construct Validation of the HLEQ
Astrid Wirth1, Edit Tóth2, Ágnes Hódi3
1Department of Education, University of Vienna, Sensengasse 3A, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
|July 28, 2026
Summary
This study validated the Home Learning Environment Questionnaire (HLEQ) across Austria and Hungary, finding it structurally sound for measuring traditional and digital learning environments in young children.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Educational Psychology
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
Background:
- Digital media significantly influence early childhood education, yet few tools assess these alongside traditional home learning environments (HLE).
- Existing HLE measurement tools often lack cross-cultural validation, limiting their global applicability.
- The Greek Home Learning Environment Questionnaire (HLEQ) needed validation in diverse cultural contexts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the cross-cultural validity and reliability of the HLEQ in Austrian and Hungarian preschool children's home learning environments.
- To determine if the HLEQ's factor structure remains consistent across different cultural settings.
- To assess the inclusion of digital learning activities as a distinct dimension within the HLEQ.
Main Methods:
- Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were employed to test the HLEQ's structure in Austrian and Hungarian samples (N=515).
- Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega.
- Multi-group analyses were conducted to test for configural, metric, and scalar invariance across countries.
Main Results:
- The six-factor structure of the HLEQ, including digital learning activities, was supported across both countries.
- Acceptable to good internal consistency was found for most HLEQ scales.
- Configural and metric invariance were supported, but scalar invariance was not, indicating differences in item intercepts and limiting latent mean comparisons.
Conclusions:
- The HLEQ demonstrates structural validity across Austrian and Hungarian contexts for assessing traditional and digital home learning environments.
- While the HLEQ's structure is comparable, caution is needed when interpreting and comparing latent mean levels due to lack of scalar invariance.
- Future research should explore the differential impact of traditional and digital HLE components on child development across cultures.
