PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale: an item response theory analysis

Area of Science:

• Psychometrics
• Pediatric Health
• Outcome Measurement

Background:

• The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) develops patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments for clinical research.
• The PROMIS pediatrics project focuses on developing PROs for children aged 8-17 across various health domains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale.
• To develop a reliable and valid measure of anger in pediatric populations.

Main Methods:

• A total of 759 participants (ages 8-17) were recruited from diverse settings.
• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assessed scale dimensionality and local dependence.
• Item response theory (IRT) analyses were used to refine the scale and create a short form.

Main Results:

• CFA confirmed the unidimensionality of the anger items.
• Items with local dependence were removed, resulting in a six-item short form.
• IRT analyses provided scaled scores and conditional standard errors for the PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale, version 1.0.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully calibrated anger items and established the PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale, version 1.0.
• This validated scale provides a valuable tool for assessing anger in pediatric clinical research.