The primary purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of infant test scores, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scores, socioeconomic factors and maternal IQ as predictors of children's mental test performance. Additional purposes were to (1) determine the extent to which socioeconomic factors and maternal characteristics were associated with HOME scores, and (2) determine how well the HOME would predict child test performance if the influence of economic resources or maternal ability level were partialed out of the correlations. The study was based upon a socioeconomically heterogeneous sample of 41 mother-child dyads. The HOME and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development were administered when the children were 6- and 18- months-old. Thirty-six of the 41 children participated in follow-up testing with the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale at 48 months of age. Results suggest that in a socioeconomically heterogeneous sample, knowledge of the family's earned income at the time of the child's birth predicted children's intellectual status at age of 4 as well as did HOME scores gathered in the first or second year of life. Mothers' IQ predicted child IQ best of all. After the effect of maternal intellectual differences upon child intellectual outcomes was partialed out, a measure of early environmental quality showed no relationship to child outcomes. (Author/RH)