Measuring PROMIS® Well-Being in Early Childhood

Objective Expand the current Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) well-being measures to early childhood (1–5 years) using best practices from PROMIS and developmental science. Methods Qualitative methods included expert input, literature and measure review, and parent interviews to confirm measure frameworks, item understandability, and developmental appropriateness. Quantitative methods included two waves of field testing and item response theory (IRT)-based psychometric evaluation of reliability and validity, as well as IRT centering and item calibration. Correlational analyses with other PROMIS Early Childhood (EC) Parent Report measures and known-group differences analyses by health status were conducted to evaluate construct validity. All measures were normed to the general U.S. population. Results Qualitative results suggested three primary early childhood well-being domains: Positive Affect, Engagement, and Self-Regulation. Quantitative results revealed a unidimensional factor structure for Positive Affect and multidimensional factor structures for Engagement and Self-Regulation, both of which had two factors accounting for >10% of modeled variance reflecting unique unidimensional domains. This resulted in five final PROMIS EC well-being measures: Positive Affect, Engagement—Curiosity, Engagement—Persistence, Self-Regulation—Flexibility, and Self-Regulation—Frustration Tolerance. Correlations and known-groups differences analyses showed robust construct validity across a range of chronic health conditions. Conclusions The new PROMIS EC Parent Report well-being measures offer clinicians and researchers a brief, efficient, and precise way to evaluate young children’s well-being. All five measures include only positively valanced item content, which pushes the field to evaluate the presence of children’s positive assets rather than the absence of problems.