Abstract

Background Good interview and diagnostic measures for autism and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) are available but there is a lack of a good screening questionnaire. Aims To develop and test a screening questionnaire based on items in the best available diagnostic interview – the Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI–R) Method A 40 -item scale, the Autism Screening Questionnaire (ASQ), was developed and tested on a sample of 160 individuals with PDD and 40 with non-PDD diagnoses. Results The ASQ has good discriminative validity with respect to the separation of PDD from non-PDD diagnoses at all IQ levels, with a cut-off of 15 proving most effective. The differentiation between autism and other varieties of PDD was weaker. Conclusions The ASQ is an effective screening questionnaire for PDD.

Keywords

AutismMedical diagnosisPervasive developmental disorderPsychologyScreening testTest (biology)Clinical psychologyTest validityDevelopmental disorderPsychiatryPsychometricsMedicinePediatrics

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Publication Info

Year
1999
Type
article
Volume
175
Issue
5
Pages
444-451
Citations
1457
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Sibel Kazak Berument, Michael Rutter, Catherine Lord et al. (1999). Autism screening questionnaire: Diagnostic validity. The British Journal of Psychiatry , 175 (5) , 444-451. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.175.5.444

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DOI
10.1192/bjp.175.5.444