Validation of the autism behavior checklist in Egyptian children with autism spectrum disorder

Child Neuropsychol. 2024 Jan 26:1-16. doi: 10.1080/09297049.2024.2309016. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

This study was designed to validate the Arabic version of the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) for the Egyptian population. A total of 500 mothers of children aged 4-14 years, of whom 150 had a diagnosis of ASD, 100 with intellectual disability, and 250 typically developing children completed the ABC. The factor analysis showed that 48 of 57 ABC items yielded a five-dimensional factor structure. The ABC-Arabic version indicated acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.85) and test - retest reliability (0.82). Also, the ABC exhibited good concurrent validity and discriminative validity. A cutoff score of 58 obtained a sensitivity of 94.7% and a specificity of 92.14% for detecting children with ASD. Our findings support the use of the ABC as a valid screening measure for ASD cases, and it may promote the use of the ABC for clinical and research purposes among Arabic-speaking communities.

Keywords: ABC; Arabic; Autism spectrum disorder; factor analysis; reliability.