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PROMIS Domains
PROMIS® Measures for Parent Proxy Report (Ages 1-17)
Different Measures by Age
There are two different parent proxy measures:
- Early Childhood Parent-Report (ages 1-5)
- Parent Proxy (ages 5-17)
The Early Childhood Parent-Report measures used the Parent Proxy item banks as a starting point for measure development, but include unique items and are scored on a separate metric. Scores from Early Childhood Parent-Report measures cannot be compared to scores from Parent Proxy measures.
Computer Adaptive Tests and Short Forms by Domain
PROMIS® includes multiple types of measures:
- Computer adaptive tests (CATs)
- Screen-to-CATs
- Short forms (usually 4-8 items)
- Profiles (collection of short forms or computer adaptive tests)
Read about each PROMIS measure type.
The following tables list all PROMIS domains and measures.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional Distress – Anxiety | Fear (fearfulness, panic), anxious misery (worry, dread), hyperarousal (tension, nervousness, restlessness), and somatic symptoms related to arousal (racing heart, dizziness). | ✓ | ✓ |
| Emotional Distress – Depressive Symptoms | Negative mood (sadness, guilt), views of self (self-criticism, worthlessness), and social cognition (loneliness, interpersonal alienation); decreased positive affect, anhedonia (loss of interest, inability to engage in play), and engagement. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Peer Relationships | Positive peer interactions, sociability (getting along well with others), and empathic behaviors. | ✓ |
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Screen-to-CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional Distress – Anxiety | Fear (fearfulness, panic), anxious misery (worry, dread), hyperarousal (tension, nervousness, restlessness), and somatic symptoms related to arousal (racing heart, dizziness). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Emotional Distress – Depressive Symptoms | Negative mood (sadness, guilt), views of self (self-criticism, worthlessness), and social cognition (loneliness, interpersonal alienation); decreased positive affect, anhedonia (loss of interest, inability to engage in play), and engagement. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fatigue | Range of symptoms, from mild subjective feelings of tiredness to an overwhelming, debilitating, and sustained sense of exhaustion. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pain Intensity | How much a person hurts. | ✓ | ||
| Pain Interference | Consequences of pain on relevant aspects of one’s life. This includes the extent to which pain hinders engagement with social, cognitive, emotional, physical, and recreational activities. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Peer Relationships | Positive peer interactions, sociability (getting along well with others), and empathic behaviors. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Physical Function – Mobility | Activities of physical mobility such as getting out of bed or a chair to activities such as running. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
P This measure is an item pool. An item pool is a collection of items that are not scored.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Activity | Parent- or proxy-reported capability rather than actual performance of physical activities. This includes the functioning of one’s upper extremities (dexterity), lower extremities (walking or mobility), and central regions (neck, back), as well as instrumental activities of daily living. | (7s) | |
| Sleep Disturbance | Sleep quality, sleep onset (difficulties falling asleep), sleep continuity (difficulties staying asleep). | ✓ | |
| Sleep Problems | Young children’s sleep disturbance, which reflects sleep quality pertaining to delayed sleep, sleep onset, and sleep continuity, and sleep-related impairment, which reflects the impact of poor sleep on daytime functioning, routines, and mood. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sleep-Related Impairment | Perceptions of sleepiness during usual awake hours and reported impairments during the day associated with sleep problems or daytime sleepiness. | ✓ |
S This measure is a scale (items are not a subset from an item bank, and the measure produces a score).
* The Early Childhood Sleep Disturbance and Sleep-Related Impairment short forms are comprised of items from the Sleep Problems item bank.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Screen-to-CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asthma Impact | Asthma-specific symptoms that include cough, wheeze, shortness of breath, and avoidance of triggers. Also, asthma-associated impacts such as missing school or activities with other children. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Itch (PIQ-C) | Parents’ perception of itch (pruritus) symptoms and their impact on children’s daily living; includes items for parents’ perception of their children with skin conditions. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pain Behavior | Behaviors that typically indicate to others that an individual is experiencing pain. These actions or reactions can be verbal or nonverbal, and involuntary or deliberate. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Physical Activity | Parent- or proxy-reported capability rather than actual performance of physical activities. This includes the functioning of one’s upper extremities (dexterity), lower extremities (walking or mobility), and central regions (neck, back), as well as instrumental activities of daily living. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Physical Function – Upper Extremity | Activities that require use of the upper extremity including shoulder, arm, and hand activities. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Physical Stress Experiences | The physically experienced sensations associated with responses to internal or external challenges including arousal, agitation, pain, and gastrointestinal distress. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sleep Disturbance | Sleep quality, sleep onset (difficulties falling asleep), sleep continuity (difficulties staying asleep). | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sleep-Related Impairment | Perceptions of sleepiness during usual awake hours and reported impairments during the day associated with sleep problems or daytime sleepiness. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Strength Impact | A child’s capacity to perform functional activities of daily living that require significant amount of muscle force generation. | ✓ | ✓ |
p This measure is an item pool. An item pool is a collection of items that are not scored.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional Distress – Anger | Angry mood (irritability, frustration, grouchiness), negative social cognitions (interpersonal sensitivity, envy, disagreeableness), behavior (tantrums), and efforts to control anger. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Engagement – Curiosity | Young children’s emotional, behavioral, and cognitive curiosity and interest, and initiative taking. | (6s) | |
| Engagement – Persistence | Young children’s sustained engagement and effort in problem solving and completing challenging activities and self-confidence. | (6s) | |
| Positive Affect | Momentary positive or rewarding affective experiences, such as feelings and mood associated with pleasure, joy, elation, contentment, pride, affection, happiness, engagement, and excitement. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Self-Regulation – Flexibility | Young children’s ability to adapt in response to environmental demands, changes, and expectations. | (5s) | |
| Self-Regulation – Frustration Tolerance | Young children’s recognition and regulation of emotions and behaviors in service of their goals (coping). | (6s) |
S This measure is a scale (items are not a subset from an item bank, and the measure produces a score).
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Screen-to-CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cognitive Function | Difficulties in cognitive abilities (e.g., memory, attention, and decision making), and difficulties in the application of such abilities to everyday tasks (e.g., planning, organizing, calculating, remembering, and learning). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Emotional Distress – Anger | Angry mood (irritability, frustration, grouchiness), negative social cognitions (interpersonal sensitivity, envy, disagreeableness), behavior (tantrums), and efforts to control anger. | ✓ | ||
| Life Satisfaction | Global and context-specific evaluations of a child’s life. Conceptual facets include global evaluations of life, context-specific evaluations of life, assessments of life conditions, and comparisons of one’s life with others’ lives. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Meaning and Purpose | A child’s sense that life has purpose and there are good reasons for living, including hopefulness, optimism, goal-directedness, and feelings that one’s life is worthy. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Positive Affect | Momentary positive or rewarding affective experiences, such as feelings and mood associated with pleasure, joy, elation, contentment, pride, affection, happiness, engagement, and excitement. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Psychological Stress Experiences | The thoughts or feelings about self and the world in the context of environmental or internal challenges. Items represent 3 facets of psychological stress reactions: feeling overwhelmed, perceived lack of control of capacity to manage one’s life, and cognitive-perceptual disruption. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Stigma | Perceptions of self and publicly enacted negativity, prejudice, and discrimination as a result of disease-related manifestations. Bank includes generic items for children with chronic conditions. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Stigma – Skin | Perceptions of self and publicly enacted negativity, prejudice, and discrimination as a result of disease-related manifestations. Bank includes generic items for children with chronic conditions, as well as skin-specific items. | ✓ | ✓ |
S This measure is a scale (items are not a subset from an item bank, and the measure produces a score).
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Relationships | The subjective (affective, emotional, cognitive) experience of being involved with one’s family, feeling like an important person in the family, of feeling accepted and cared for, and feeling that family members, especially parents, can be trusted and depended on for help and understanding. | ✓ | |
| Social Relationships | Young children’s family relationships — positive interactions, experiences, and connectedness with the primary caregiver and broader family unit reflecting warmth and affection, trust, dependability, and support — and peer relationships — positive peer interactions, sociability (getting along well with others), and empathic behaviors. | ✓ | ✓ |
*The Early Childhood Parent-Report Family Relationships items come from the Early Childhood Social Relationships item bank.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Relationships | The subjective (affective, emotional, cognitive) experience of being involved with one’s family, feeling like an important person in the family, of feeling accepted and cared for, and feeling that family members, especially parents, can be trusted and depended on for help and understanding. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Health | Overall evaluation of physical, mental health, and social health. | ✓ |
S This measure is a scale (items are not a subset from an item bank, and the measure produces a score).
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Health | Overall evaluation of physical, mental health, and social health. | ✓ |
S This measure is a scale (items are not a subset from an item bank, and the measure produces a score).
* The 9-item Parent Proxy Global Health measure is named “7+2”. It produces scores for Global Health, Fatigue, and Pain Interference.
| Profile Measure | Definition | CATs or Short Forms | Total Measure Length (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PROMIS Parent Proxy-25 Profile | A collection of 4-item short forms assessing anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain interference, physical function-mobility, and peer relationships, as well as a single pain intensity item. | Short Forms | 25 |
| PROMIS Parent Proxy-36 Profile | A collection of 5- and 6-item short forms assessing anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain interference, physical function-mobility, and peer relationships, as well as a single pain intensity item. | Short Forms | 36 |
| PROMIS Parent Proxy-48 Profile | A collection of 7- and 8-item short forms assessing anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain interference, physical function-mobility, and peer relationships, as well as a single pain intensity item. | Short Forms | 48 |
Last updated: September 14, 2026