ABSTRACT
At present, there are no brief, freely-available, informant-report measures that evaluate key challenging behaviors relevant to youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other developmental disabilities (DD). This paper describes the development, refinement, and initial psychometric evaluation of a new 18-item measure, the Open-Source Challenging Behavior Scale (OS-CBS). In a large sample (n = 2004, 169 with ASD, ages 2-17), results of psychometric analyses indicated a clear factor structure (property destruction, aggression, elopement, conduct problems, and self-injury and a general factor with high loadings from all items) based on exploratory structural equation modeling, good scale reliability (α = .66-.83 for subscales, α = .91 total scale), measurement invariance across demographics, and good construct validity. The OS-CBS is a psychometrically-sound instrument for screening and monitoring intervention progress.
Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder , Problem Behavior , Adolescent , Humans , Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnosis , Psychometrics/methods , Reproducibility of Results , Aggression , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
LAY ABSTRACT: Early intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is dependent on reliable methods for early detection. Screening for ASD symptoms is an important strategy in low- and middle-income countries that often lack adequate service infrastructure. This study aims to conduct preliminary evaluation of the psychometric properties of a tool developed and deployed in Nigeria called the Nigerian Autism Screening Questionnaire (NASQ). Results demonstrated that NASQ, when used as a community-based survey, has a clear factor structure with consistent measurement across age and sex, and that scores from below average to well above average are measured reliably. Future research is needed to examine the performance of this tool against confirmatory ASD diagnosis in screening and diagnostic contexts to further understand the utility and applicability of this tool in the resource-limited Nigerian setting.
