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Measuring PROMIS® Social Relationships in Early Childhood

Courtney K Blackwell1, Jin-Shei Lai1, Michael Kallen1

  • 1Department of Medical Social Sciences, Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences (DevSci), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, USA.

Journal of Pediatric Psychology
|May 13, 2022
PubMed

Insights

New Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) tools effectively measure young children's social relationships. These validated measures assess early relational health, aiding clinicians and researchers in targeted interventions.

Area of Science:

  • Psychometrics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Pediatric Health

Background:

  • Assessing early relational health in young children (1-5 years) is crucial for development.
  • Existing measures may not fully capture the nuances of social relationships in early childhood.
  • The Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) framework offers a robust approach to developing standardized measures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and validate new parent-report measures of young children's family and peer relationships using a mixed-methods approach.
  • To align these measures with existing PROMIS® frameworks for older children (5-17 years).
  • To create a brief, efficient, and precise tool for evaluating early relational health.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized expert input, parent interviews, and literature reviews to create item pools.
  • Administered surveys to 1,750 parents in two waves.
  • Employed item response theory (IRT) for psychometric evaluation and normed scores to the U.S. population.

Main Results:

  • Content validity confirmed, with suggestions for child-caregiver interactions and empathic behaviors.
  • Bi-factor analysis supported unidimensionality of Social Relationships, with distinct family and peer subdomains.
  • Measures effectively discriminated children with poor social relationships and correlated with general health and distress.

Conclusions:

  • The PROMIS® Early Childhood Parent-Report Social Relationships item bank provides a valuable tool for assessing early relational health.
  • Subdomain short forms allow for targeted assessment of child-caregiver, family, and peer relationships.
  • These measures enhance the ability of clinicians and researchers to evaluate and intervene in early social development.
Abstract

Keywords:
infancy and early childhoodmeasure validationparentspreschool childrensocial functioningsocial functioning and peerssocial skills

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