An German Short-Version of the "Sensory Perception Quotient" for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Christoph Klein; Teresa Miczuga; Marie Sophie Kost; Hannah Röring; Tomasz A Jarczok; Nico Bast; Ulf Thiemann; Christian Fleischhaker; Ludger Tebartz Van Elst; Andreas Riedel; Monica Biscaldi

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.781409

An German Short-Version of the "Sensory Perception Quotient" for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 14:13:781409. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.781409. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Christoph Klein^{1

2

3}, Teresa Miczuga¹, Marie Sophie Kost¹, Hannah Röring¹, Tomasz A Jarczok⁴, Nico Bast⁴, Ulf Thiemann^{2

5}, Christian Fleischhaker¹, Ludger Tebartz Van Elst⁶, Andreas Riedel^{6

7}, Monica Biscaldi¹

Affiliations

¹ Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics und Psychotherapy in Children Adolescents, Medical Faculty, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
² Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics und Psychotherapy in Children and Adolescents, Medical Faculty, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
³ Second Psychiatry Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, University General Hospital "ATTIKON, " Athens, Greece.
⁴ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Autism Research and Intervention Center of Excellence, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany.
⁵ Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics und Psychotherapy in Children and Adolescents, LVR Hospital, Bonn, Germany.
⁶ Clinic for Psychiatry und Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
⁷ Clinic for Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, University of Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland.

Abstract

Sensory features in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have received increasing interest in clinical work and research during the recent years. With the Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ), Tavasolli and colleagues have produced a self-rating scale for adults with ASD that measures sensory hyper-sensitivity in different sensory modalities, without also tapping cognitive or motivational aspects that precede or follow autistic sensory experiences. Here, we present the results of a translation of the SPQ to German and its short version as well as their validation in samples of autistic or neuro-typical participants. We, furthermore, present the psychometric properties and validities of Tavasolli's original SPQ-short version as well as an alternative short version based on different psychometric item-selection criteria. We can show here that our alternative SPQ-short version, overlapping with the original short-version in 61% of its items, exhibits superior reliabilities, reasonable concurrent validities with other related measures. It, furthermore, exhibits excellent differentiation between autistic and non-autistic samples, underscoring its utility as a screening instrument in research and a clinical instrument to supplement the ASD diagnostic process.

Keywords: Autism Quotient; Empathy Quotient; IQ; Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ); adults; autism spectrum disorder; sensory features; sex differences.