Is the Autism-Spectrum Quotient a Valid Measure of Traits Associated with the Autism Spectrum? A Rasch Validation in Adults with and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders

Lars-Olov Lundqvist; Helen Lindner

doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3128-y

Is the Autism-Spectrum Quotient a Valid Measure of Traits Associated with the Autism Spectrum? A Rasch Validation in Adults with and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders

J Autism Dev Disord. 2017 Jul;47(7):2080-2091. doi: 10.1007/s10803-017-3128-y.

Authors

Lars-Olov Lundqvist¹, Helen Lindner²

Affiliations

¹ University Health Care Research Center, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, P.O. Box 1613, 701 16, Örebro, Sweden. lars-olov.lundqvist@regionorebrolan.se.
² School of Health Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.

Abstract

The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) is among the most widely used scales assessing autistic traits in the general population. However, some aspects of the AQ are questionable. To test its scale properties, the AQ was translated into Swedish, and data were collected from 349 adults, 130 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 219 without ASD, and analysed with Rasch. Several scale properties of the AQ were satisfactory but it did not meet the criterion of a unidimensional measure of autistic traits. The Rasch analysis showed that the 50-item AQ could be reduced to a 12-item subset with little loss of explanatory power, with the potential to efficiently measure the degree to which adults with and without ASD show autistic traits.

Keywords: Adults; Autism-Spectrum Quotient; Autistic traits; Rasch model.

Publication types

Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

Adult
Autism Spectrum Disorder / diagnosis*
Case-Control Studies
Cultural Characteristics*
Female
Humans
Neuropsychological Tests / standards*
Phenotype
Sweden