Assessment of Autistic Traits in Children Aged 2 to 4½ Years With the Preschool Version of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS‐P): Findings from Japan

Abstract

The recent development and use of autism measures for the general population has led to a growing body of evidence which suggests that autistic traits are distributed along a continuum. However, as most existing autism measures were designed for use in children older than age 4, to date, little is known about the autistic continuum in children younger than age 4. As autistic symptoms are evident in the first few years, to address this research gap, the current study tested the preschool version of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-P) in children aged 2 to 4 1 =2 years in clinical (N 5 74, average age 40 months, 26-51 months) and community settings (N 5 357, average age 39 months, 25-50 months) in Japan. Using information obtained from different raters (mothers, other caregivers, and teachers) it was found that the scale demonstrated a good degree of internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability, and a satisfactory degree of convergent validity for the clinical sample when compared with scores from diagnostic "gold standard" autism measures. Receiver operating characteristic analyses and the group comparisons also showed that the SRS-P total score discriminated well between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those without ASD. Importantly, this scale could identify autistic symptoms or traits distributed continually across the child population at this age irrespective of the presence of an ASD diagnosis. These findings suggest that the SRS-P might be a sensitive instrument for case identification including subthreshold ASD, as well as a potentially useful research tool for exploring ASD endophenotypes. Autism Res 2017, 10: 852-865.

Adaptation of the Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) to preschool children

“…In a study with a community sample of school-aged children (ages 7 to 9) [ 34 ], the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.86: A similar level of internal consistency for the ASSQ for preschool children was also found. The internal consistency of the ASD screening instrument, which is similar to the ASSQ applied to preschool children, was 0.99 for the Autism Spectrum Quotient: Children’s Version (AQ-Child) [ 23 ]; 0.891–0.942 for the preschool version of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-P) [ 50 ]; and 0.839 for the Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST) [ 51 ]. As a coefficient, internal consistency tends to increase as the number of items on a scale increases.…”

“…As such, a scale needs to be compared with another scale with a similar number of items. Of the three scales mentioned above, the AQ-Child had 50 items [ 23 ], the SRS-P had 65, [ 50 ] and the CAST had 37 [ 51 ]. Even with regard to the number of items, the ASSQ’s internal consistency is believed to be satisfactory to a certain level as a screening instrument for the same age group.…”

“…Furthermore, the AUC of the ASSQ that targeted school children from 7 to 9 years old was 0.90–0.97 [ 55 , 56 ], indicating it had similar discriminant validity among preschool children. The AUC of the scale targeting preschool children, similar to the ASSQ, was 0.99 (95% CI: 0.98–0.99) for AQ-Child [ 23 ]; 0.874 (95% CI: 0.810–0.939) for SRS-P [ 50 ]; and 0.931 for CAST [ 51 ]. The ASSQ’s discriminant ability was inferred as satisfying a certain level when compared with the population-based screening instrument for the same age group.…”

A Psychometrically Robust Screening Tool To Rapidly Identify Socially Impaired Monkeys In The General Population

“…The SRS is a 65-item survey-based instrument that quantitatively assesses the presence and severity of autistic traits in children and adults in the general human population [Chan, Smith, Hong, Greenberg, & Mailick, 2017;Constantino & Gruber, 2012]. The SRS was developed for use in the United States, but has since been shown to accurately measure autistic traits in multiple and diverse human societies [Bölte, Poustka, & Constantino, 2008;Jussila et al, 2015;Stickley et al, 2017]. Importantly, SRS scores of ASD-diagnosed vs. unaffected siblings differ robustly at 1.5 standard deviations above the general population mean [Constantino, 2011;Constantino, Zhang, Frazier, Abbacchi, & Law, 2010;Virkud, Todd, Abbacchi, Zhang, & Constantino, 2009].…”

Early childhood behavioral features that discriminate autism from other developmental problems in Japan

“…However, investigations of general mental and neurocognitive development have not been fully standardized. The results of a recent systematic study have suggested that the preschool version of the Social Responsiveness Scale identifies the distribution of autistic symptoms as a continuum in children younger than age 4 (Stickley et al, ). These questionnaires, which are obtained by mothers, fathers, or other caregivers, could be very useful for investigating ASD in toddlers.…”