Social relationships are a key component of quality of life, a high-priority outcome for autistic people, and family relationships are critical in adolescence. The PROMIS Family Relationships scale has been well validated for use with the general population, but psychometric validation in the autistic population is lacking. This study investigated measurement invariance of the PROMIS Family Relationships among autistic and general population adolescents. The scale demonstrated scalar invariance between the groups, providing evidence that it measures the same construct equivalently and scores can be meaningfully compared between groups. With a well-validated self-report measure, researchers can ask autistic teens directly about their experiences of their family relationships, rather than relying solely on parent proxy report.
Keywords: PROMIS; adolescence; autism; family relationships; measurement invariance; patient‐reported outcome measures.
Autistic people and their families value research about quality of life, including family relationships. When researchers use tools that were originally developed for the general population, rather than those designed specifically for autistic people, they must first make sure that the tool measures the same thing in the same way for autistic people. This study tested whether a tool that works well for the general population, the PROMIS Family Relationships scale, also works well for autistic teens. We found that the scale did measure the same thing in the same way for autistic teens, meaning that researchers can confidently do research using this scale with autistic teenagers and compare answers from both groups. This is important because most research on autism and family relationships asks questions of parents, but this scale can be used directly with autistic teens themselves to ask about their experiences.
© 2026 The Author(s). Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.