HOME-21 Infant-Toddlerđź”—
| Name | Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Infant-Toddler Version (HOME-21) |
| Table Name | sed_cg_home_it |
| Construct | Child’s Home Environment: Cognitive Stimulation and Emotional Support in the Home |
| Study Visits | V04, V06 |
| Type | In-person/Remote Questionnaire (Parent on Child; 10 min) |
| Quality Control | Subject matter experts constructed an algorithm to verify and correct scores computed automatically. |
The HBCD dataset includes many variables that may be important for sound and comprehensive analysis. The inclusion of additional variables will depend on the research question(s) and methodological approach. Users are encouraged to take time to explore the full range of available variables—especially those that may serve as controls, contextual indicators, confounders, mechanisms, or modifiers—to ensure thoughtful and well-supported analytic decisions. Other important considerations may include developmental functioning, broader family supports, and early adverse and protective exposures.
Instrument Detailsđź”—
Assessment of children’s home environments is crucial to understanding contexts and experiences that are important predictors of children’s development. The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory (Caldwell & Bradley, 2016, 2003) is one of the most widely used measures of the quality and quantity of support available to a child in the child’s home environment. The HOME-21 is a revision of the HOME-Short Form that was used in the NLSY. The HOME-21 includes updates to tool to be responsive to changes in the composition of families, gender roles and the division of childcare in families, norms about the acceptability and advisability of different forms of discipline, and the digital environment in which children live (Lansford et al., 2023).
For HBCD, HOME-21 was adapted for more inclusive language (“sister or brother” changed to “sibling(s)”; “family members” changed to “another adult in your home”).
Individual items are re-scored as Yes (1)/No (0) and summed within two domains, Cognitive Stimulation (range 0-8) and Emotional Support (range 0-3), plus a total score (range 0-12). The tool is intended to be used in infants aged Birth - 2y 11m 30d. See this table for complete details and Lansford et al. (2023) for complete scoring procedure details.
Bradley, R. H., Corwyn, R. F., McAdoo, H. P., & Coll, C. G. (2001). The home environments of children in the United States part I: variations by age, ethnicity, and poverty status. Child Development, 72(6), 1844–1867. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.t01-1-00382
Bradley, Robert H. (2015). Constructing and adapting causal and formative measures of family settings: The HOME Inventory as illustration. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 7(4), 381–414. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12108
Bradley, Robert H., & Caldwell, B. M. (1984). The HOME Inventory and family demographics. Developmental Psychology, 20(2), 315–320. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.20.2.315
Caldwell, B. M., & Bradley, R. H. (2003). Home observation measurement environment: Administration manual (pp. 23–33).
Caldwell BM, & Bradley RH (2016). Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment. Tempe, AZ: The Connect Center, Arizona State University.
Lansford, J. E., Odgers, C. L., Bradley, R. H., Godwin, J., Copeland, W. E., Rothenberg, W. A., & Dodge, K. A. (2023). The HOME-21: A revised measure of the home environment for the 21st century tested in two independent samples. Psychological Assessment, 35(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001183
Mott, F. L. (2004). The utility of the HOME-SF scale for child development research in a large national longitudinal survey: The national longitudinal survey of youth 1979 cohort. Parenting, Science and Practice, 4(2–3), 259–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2004.9681273