Page Last Updated: October 17, 2025
Infant Behavior Questionnaire-R (VSF)+BIđź”—
mh_cg_ibqrThe IBQ-R (VSF)+BI assesses normative variations in child behavior and should be interpreted within the context of the child's age and developmental stage. This is not clinical or diagnostic instrument.
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.
Administration & Quality Controlđź”—
| Child Specific | Yes |
| Respondent | Primary caregiver |
| Administration | Self-administered remotely |
| Visits | V03, V05 (Validated for ages 3 months 0 days to 17 months 30 days for HBCD) |
| Completion Time | 7-10 min |
| Quality Control | QC procedures involved examination of missingness (by counting the number of items answered for each participant) and age to ensure that it falls within the expected range of 3-18 months. Summary statistics and visualizations were generated to review item-level frequencies, age, and scores (calculated with application of prorated scoring to account for missing data). Finally, Cronbach's Alpha was calculated to assess reliability. |
Instrument Detailsđź”—
The IBQ-R (VSF)+BI (for infancy) is caregiver-report questionnaires used to evaluate temperamental reactivity and self-regulation during the early years of development. These instruments are adapted from the validated IBQ-R Very Short Form, with additional items drawn from the long forms to capture Behavioral Inhibition (Social Fear). The HBCD measure therefore consists of 4 scale domains:
| Scale Domain | Number of Items |
|---|---|
| Surgency / Extraversion | 13 |
| Negative Affectivity | 12 |
| Effortful Control | 12 |
| Behavioral Inhibition (Social Fear) | 13 (3 overlap with Negative Affectivity) |
Alterations were made to replace “parent” with “parent/caregiver” where appropriate. Because the psychometric validation for these measures was done using items from the original measures, future publications should account for and note edits made to individual items.
Caregivers are asked to report on the infant’s behaviors on a 7-point Likert scale: 1 [Never], 2 [Very rarely], 3 [Less than half the time], 4 [About half the time], 5 [More than half the time], 6 [Almost always], 7 [Always].
Scale scores, generated for each domain, are the mean score of all scale items applicable to the child as judged by the caregiver. Importantly, this calculation only includes items with scores of 1 through 7: items where the caregiver selects "does not apply" or “choose not to respond" receive no numerical score and are not included in the total number of items for the scale. Items with an “R” are reverse-scored and already implemented in the HBCD scoring algorithm.
For additional information, please see the data dictionary for details on items and scales as well as Mary Rothbart's Temperament Questionnaires.
Referencesđź”—
Gartstein, M. A., & Rothbart, M. K. (2003). Studying infant temperament via the Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Infant Behavior & Development, 26(1), 64–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0163-6383(02)00169-8
Putnam, S. P., Helbig, A. L., Gartstein, M. A., Rothbart, M. K., & Leerkes, E. (2014). Development and assessment of short and very short forms of the infant behavior questionnaire-revised. Journal of Personapty Assessment, 96(4), 445–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2013.841171
Rothbart, M. K. (1981). Measurement of temperament in infancy. Child Development, 52(2), 569–578. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1981.tb03082.x