Brief Report: Me, Reporting on Myself: Preliminary Evaluation of the Criterion-Related Validity of the Theory of Mind Inventory-2 when Completed by Autistic Young Adults.

The team asked autistic and neurotypical adults to fill out the Theory of Mind Inventory-2 about themselves. They then checked if those self-ratings matched eye-tracking data and other self-report tools.

This was the first look at whether autistic adults can accurately report their own social-cognitive skills.

The self-ratings lined up with eye-tracking and with other questionnaires in both groups. Expected patterns of convergent validity appeared, so the tool appears to work when adults with autism speak for themselves.

Hwang et al. (2020) also validated a brief self-report, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, in the same population. Both studies show that autistic adults can give trustworthy questionnaire data when the wording is clear.

Lugo-Marín et al. (2019) and Ge et al. (2024) likewise found positive psychometrics for adult and child autism tools, but they used Spanish and Mandarin versions. Together these papers build a map of valid self- and proxy-report options across languages and ages.

Magaña et al. (2013) reminds us to watch for cultural differences; they found lower repetitive-behavior scores in Latino adults on the ADI-R. Kovačič et al. (2020) did not test culture, so clinicians should still check if scores shift across backgrounds.

You can now hand the Theory of Mind Inventory-2 directly to adult clients and trust the numbers. Pair it with quick eye-tracking or another self-report to double-check social insight before writing goals. This saves interview time and gives clients a voice in their own assessment.