Home sweet competence: Association of the physical and social home environment with toddler's motor competence.

INTRODUCTION: Motor competence (MC) underpins children's development and health from birth onwards. A pilot study in Flemish toddlers revealed a general decline in MC compared to 20 years ago, highlighting the need to explore underlying factors. This study examines how both the physical and social home environment relate to young children's MC. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 136 Flemish toddlers (18-33 months) whose MC was assessed using the Peabody Development Motor Scales, second edition (PDMS-2). Parents completed the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development Self-Report questionnaire to evaluate the physical home environment, including indoor/outdoor spaces as well as gross/fine motor play materials. Social factors included parental educational level, household income and variety in stimulation. One-sample t-tests compared gross and fine MC scores with the PDMS-2 norms. Multiple linear regressions examined associations between home environmental factors gross and fine MC. RESULTS: Gross MC was significantly lower than the normative value, whereas fine MC scores did not differ significantly. The physical home environment explained 7.8% of the variance in fine MC, with gross motor play materials acting as a significant negative predictor (β = -0.379, p = .006). It also explained 7.5% of the variance in the grasping subdomain, showing a positive association with fine motor play materials (β = 0.042, p = .017) and a negative association with gross motor play materials (β = -0.074, p = .007). No significant associations were found between the social home environment and MC outcomes. CONCLUSION: Toddlers showed lower gross MC, but comparable fine MC relative to PDMS-2 norms, with only modest associations between fine motor materials and fine MC. These small effects suggest that the home environment plays a more complex role and that additional contexts should be considered in understanding early motor competence.