1Department of Neurology, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China
2Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410008, China
3School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, China
4Child Development Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510000, China
5State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Changsha 400078, China
6Department of Child Healthcare, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China

Abstract 

The purpose of this study was to explore the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the autism spectrum rating scale (ASRS). We recruited 1,625 community-based children and 211 autism spectrum disorder (ASD) cases from 4 sites, and the parents of all participants completed the Chinese version of the ASRS. A robust weighted least squares means and variance adjusted estimator was used for exploratory factor analysis. The 3-factor structure included 59 items suitable for the current sample. The item reliability for the modified Chinese version of the ASRS (MC-ASRS) was excellent. Moreover, with 60 as the cut-off point, receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the MC-ASRS had excellent discriminate validity, comparable to that of the unmodified Chinese version (UC-ASRS), with area under the curve values of 0.952 (95% CI: 0.936–0.967) and 0.948 (95% CI: 0.930–0.965), respectively. Meanwhile, the confirm factor analysis revealed that MC-ASRS had a better construct validity than UC-ASRS based on the above factor solution in another children sample. In conclusion, the MC-ASRS shows better efficacy in epidemiological screening for ASD in Chinese children.

Keywords

Autism spectrum disorder, Screening, Epidemiology, Exploratory factor analysis, Children

[SpringerLink]