Development of the Signposting Questionnaire for Autism (SQ-A): measurement comparison with the 10-item Autism Spectrum Quotient-Child and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in the UK and Latvia

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recognising the signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be a challenge for frontline professionals. The use of brief parent-completed questionnaires for recording the signs of ASD in school-aged children may be an important and efficient contributor to professional insight. However, to date, such questionnaires have not been designed to be used in coordination with current standardised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) diagnostic tools. Furthermore, the measurement characteristics of such questionnaires have been unexplored across countries that differ in levels of national autism service provision and cultural interpretation of the signs of ASD. METHODS: A new 14-item questionnaire (Signposting Questionnaire for Autism (SQ-A)) was developed using published DSM-5 items from a clinical interview, the Diagnostic Interview for Social Communication Disorders (DISCO). Measurement comparison was tested with the Short Autism Spectrum Quotient-Child (AQ-10) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Parents of 4-11-year-old children in the UK (N = 200) and Latvia (N = 104) completed all three questionnaires. Information on clinical diagnosis provided by parents led to classification into three groups: ASD diagnosis, other conditions and no conditions. In the UK, a subsample of teachers also provided cross-informant reliability. RESULTS: In both countries, there was evidence of acceptable to good internal consistency for the SQ-A, with significantly higher scores for the ASD group and evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. There was also good parent-teacher reliability for the three measures. Notably, the questionnaires designed specifically to measure autism (SQ-A, AQ-10) performed more similarly to one another compared to the broader SDQ, with differences found for the ASD group. The overall pattern of responding to the three questionnaires was highly similar between countries. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate the potential of the 14-item SQ-A to guide frontline professionals in the recognition of the signs of autism in children, facilitating the provision of appropriate support.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00368-9
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences
Aston University (General)
Additional Information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Autism,Autism Spectrum Quotient,Diagnosis,Diagnostic Interview for Social Communication Disorders,Parent report,Signposting,Signposting Questionnaire for Autism,Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire,Molecular Biology,Developmental Neuroscience,Developmental Biology,Psychiatry and Mental health
Publication ISSN: 2040-2392
Last Modified: 19 Dec 2024 08:17
Date Deposited: 17 Aug 2020 10:59
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://molecul ... 229-020-00368-9 (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2020-08-15
Published Online Date: 2020-08-15
Accepted Date: 2020-07-23
Authors: Jones, Catherine R. G.
Barrett, Sarah L.
Bite, Ieva
Legzdina, Maria
Arina, Kristina
Higgins, Andrea
Honey, Kyla
Carrington, Sarah J. (ORCID Profile 0000-0001-5548-8793)
Hay, Dale
Condon, Johanna
Leekam, Susan R.

Download

[img]

Version: Published Version

License: Creative Commons Attribution


Export / Share Citation


Statistics

Additional statistics for this record