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A PROMIS®ing New Measure for Quantifying Emotion Dysregulation in Toddlers and Preschoolers: Development of the Emotion Dysregulation Inventory-Young Child

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Abstract

The Emotion Dysregulation Inventory (EDI) was designed and validated to quantify emotion dysregulation (ED) in school-age children, with a particular emphasis on capturing ED in youth with ASD. We saw a need to adapt the EDI for use in young children (ages 2–5) given early childhood is a formative time for emotion regulation development. The present study discusses the adaptation process for the EDI-Young Child (EDI-YC), including item refinement/generation and cognitive interviews (N = 10 with ASD), consistent with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) methodology. The item bank was piloted in a sample of 2-year-olds with and without ASD (N = 31), which provided initial support for the EDI-YC as a valid and reliable measure.

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Acknowledgments

This study included a subsample of children from the first author’s dissertation; the project was executed as a side project in collaboration with the senior author. Support for the present study included an internal award from Florida State University (awarded to Taylor N. Day), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development under Award Number R01HD078410 (PI: Amy M. Wetherby), and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development under Award Number R01HD079512 (PI: Carla A. Mazefsky). Special acknowledgement belongs to Dr. Wetherby, the first author’s graduate school mentor, as well as Dr. Lan Yu and Dr. Paul Pilkonis who contributed to the development of this measure. An additional thanks to the participating families and staff at FIRST WORDS® Project. During the preparation of this manuscript, Dr. Day was supported by National Institute of Mental Health under Award Number T32MH016804 and Dr. Northrup was supported by National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences under Award Number KL2TR001856.

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  1. Taylor N. Day

    Present address: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 101 N. Dithridge St, Suite #300, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 101 N. Dithridge St, Suite #300, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jessie B. Northrup & Carla A. Mazefsky

  2. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Taylor N. Day

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  1. Taylor N. Day
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Contributions

Dr. TND and Dr. CAM co-led the development of the EDI-YC as well as made decisions regarding the modification of the item bank. Dr. TND was responsible for data collection. All authors (TND, JBN, CAM) contributed to the data analysis and the preparation and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Carla A. Mazefsky.

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All procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Florida State University Institutional Review Board (IRB) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Day, T.N., Northrup, J.B. & Mazefsky, C.A. A PROMIS®ing New Measure for Quantifying Emotion Dysregulation in Toddlers and Preschoolers: Development of the Emotion Dysregulation Inventory-Young Child. J Autism Dev Disord 53, 2261–2273 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05536-9

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