Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchToward Brief “Red Flags” for Autism Screening: The Short Autism Spectrum Quotient and the Short Quantitative Checklist in 1,000 Cases and 3,000 Controls
Section snippets
Measures
Full details of the construction of all versions of the AQ and the Q-CHAT can be found elsewhere.11, 36, 37, 48 The AQ consists of a series of 50 statements to which participants or parents have to indicate the degree to which they agree or disagree with the statement. There are four response options: strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, strongly disagree. On half the items, the autistic trait requires a response of slightly agree or strongly agree, and on half the items slightly
Results
Results from the item analysis for all measures are presented in Table S1, TABLE S2, TABLE S3, TABLE S4, available online. The 10 items with the highest DI are presented in Table 2 (AQ) and Table 3 (Q-CHAT). The AUC for all the measures (long and short versions) is shown in Table 4, indicating that all the short versions all had AUC of >0.90. The AUC value was marginally higher for the short version on the Q-CHAT and Child AQ than the long version. ROC curves for the long and short versions of
Discussion
This study set out to adapt the AQ (child, adolescent, and adult versions) and the Q-CHAT into short versions for use in primary or social care settings by busy frontline health care professionals as rapid screeners or “red flags” to serve as guides for referral. The study demonstrated that all versions of the AQ and the Q-CHAT have very high test accuracy properties in their short (10-item) forms. Internal consistency was high on all measures (>0.85). Anastasi53 suggested that Cronbach's alpha
References (64)
Autism: many genes, common pathways?
Cell
(2008)- et al.
Prevalence of disorders of the autism spectrum in a population cohort of children in South Thames: the Special Needs and Autism Project (SNAP)
Lancet
(2006) - et al.
A screening instrument for autism at 18 months of age: a 6-year follow-up study
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
(2000) - et al.
Predicting Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) from the Systemizing Quotient—Revised (SQ-R) and Empathy Quotient (EQ)
Brain Res
(2006) - et al.
Assessment of social behavior in children with autism: the development of the Behavioral Assessment of Social Interactions in Young Children
Res Autism Spectrum Disord
(2011) The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Diagnostic Criteria for Research
(1993)Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)
(1994)- et al.
Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a British twin study
Psychol Med
(1995) - et al.
A case-control family history study of autism
J Child Psychol Psychiatry
(1994) - et al.
Genes related to sex steroids, neural growth, and social-emotional behavior are associated with autistic traits, empathy, and Asperger syndrome
Autism Res
(2009)
Evidence of brain overgrowth in the first year of life in autism
JAMA
Prevalence of autism-spectrum conditions: UK school-based population study
Br J Psychiatry
Autism spectrum disorders in adults living in households throughout England: report from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007
The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians
J Autism Dev Disord
The continuum of autistic characteristicsDiagnosis and Assessment in Autism
What does the term ‘working diagnosis’ mean?
J Autism Dev Disord
The Autistic Spectrum
The diagnosis of autism and Asperger syndrome: findings from a survey of 770 families
Dev Med Child Neurol
Economic cost of autism in the UK
Autism
The costs of autismUnderstanding Autism: From Basic Neuroscience to Treatment
Supporting People with Autism Through Adulthood
Can child care workers contribute to the early detection of autism spectrum disorders?A comparison between screening instruments with child care workers versus parents as informants
J Autism Dev Disord
Screening for developmental and behavioral problems
Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev
Can autism be detected at 18 months?The needle, the haystack, and the CHAT
Br J Psychiatry
Psychological markers in the detection of autism in infancy in a large population
Br J Psychiatry
Autism screening questionnaire: diagnostic validity
Br J Psychiatry
Validity of the social communication questionnaire in assessing risk of autism in preschool children with developmental problems
J Autism Dev Disord
Between a ROC and a hard place: decision making and making decisions about using the SCQ
J Child Psychol Psychiatry
The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers: an initial study investigating the early detection of autism and pervasive developmental disorders
J Autism Dev Disord
Screening for autistic spectrum in children aged 14 to 15 monthsI: the development of the Early Screening of Autistic Traits Questionnaire (ESAT)
J Autism Dev Disord
Screening for autistic spectrum disorder in children aged 14-15 monthsII: population screening with the Early Screening of Autistic Traits Questionnaire (ESAT). Design and general findings
J Autism Dev Disord
Cited by (596)
Sibling bullying and mental health in British and Turkish autistic children and adolescents: The role of social and emotional functioning
2024, Research in Autism Spectrum DisordersAutistic traits in adolescents in psychiatric inpatient care: Clinical and demographic characteristics and correlates
2024, Research in Autism Spectrum DisordersPsychometric properties of the 10-item Autism Quotient in an acute psychiatric sample
2024, Research in Autism Spectrum DisordersPrevalence of previously undiagnosed psychiatric symptom groupings in pediatric patients with bladder and bowel dysfunction
2024, Journal of Pediatric UrologyDiscovery of depression-associated factors among childhood trauma victims from a large sample size: Using machine learning and network analysis
2024, Journal of Affective Disorders
Funding was made possible from grants from the Big Lottery Fund, the Medical Research Council, the Three Guineas Trust, and the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care.
Supplemental material cited in this article is available online.
We are grateful to all of the individuals and families that completed the questionnaires. This study was conducted in association with National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. We thank Carol Brayne, Fiona Matthews, and Liliana Ruta of the University of Cambridge; Tony Charman and Greg Pasco of the Institute of Education; Sally Wheelwright of the University of Southampton and Rosa Hoekstra of the Open University, for valuable discussions. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Disclosure: Drs. Allison, Auyeung, and Baron-Cohen report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
This article can be used to obtain continuing medical education (CME) category 1 credit at jaacap.org.