The Latent Structure of Autistic Traits:A Taxometric, Latent Class and Latent Profile Analysis of the Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient

Abstract

Autistic traits are widely thought to operate along a continuum. A taxometric analysis of Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient data was conducted to test this assumption, finding little support but identifying a high severity taxon. To understand this further, latent class and latent profile models were estimated that indicated the presence of six distinct subtypes: one with little probability of endorsing any autistic traits, one engaging in ‘systemising’ behaviours, three groups endorsing multiple components of Wing and Gould’s autistic triad, and a group similar in size and profile to the taxon previously identified. These analyses suggest the AQ (and potentially by extension autistic traits) have a categorical structure. These findings have important implications for the analysis and interpretation of AQ data.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2897-z
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences
Funding Information: This research in this manuscript was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant Number ES/J500100/1) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant Number EP/G037574/1).
Additional Information: © The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Autism quotient,Autistic traits,Latent class analysis,Latent structure analysis,Nosology,Taxometric analysis,Developmental and Educational Psychology
Publication ISSN: 1573-3432
Last Modified: 19 Feb 2024 08:21
Date Deposited: 15 Oct 2018 10:23
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2016-12-01
Published Online Date: 2016-09-12
Accepted Date: 2016-09-01
Authors: James, Richard J.E.
Dubey, Indu
Smith, Danielle
Ropar, Danielle
Tunney, Richard J. (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-4673-757X)

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