Factor Analysis of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales Parent Report 6-18 in a Complex Community Sample.
The 17-item ASRSp6 short form is not yet valid for spotting ASD—stick with ADOS-2 for diagnosis.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Camodeca (2025) ran a factor analysis on the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales Parent Report 6-18. The goal was to see if a shorter 17-item version could still spot autism traits in a mixed community sample.
The team looked at parent answers from kids with and without ASD. They tested whether three clean factors popped out and whether the short form kept its diagnostic power.
What they found
The 17-item ASRSp6 short form did hang together in three factors. Fit stats looked good, but the scale still missed too many kids who really had ASD.
In plain words: the short form is tidy, yet it is not ready to replace longer tools for diagnosis.
How this fits with other research
Pandolfi et al. (2010) and Lecavalier (2005) already showed the GARS and GARS-2 factors do not match their manuals. Camodeca (2025) echoes that warning: parent rating scales can look neat on paper yet still fail in real clinics.
Chetcuti et al. (2025) had better luck. Their factor work on the Child Social Preference Scale-3 in autistic kids found a solid bifactor model. The difference? Lacey kept more items and used a stricter ASD sample, while Amy trimmed heavily and worked with a broad community mix.
Adams et al. (2022) also struck trouble. The School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised did not fit autistic students, and parents said it missed autism-specific reasons. Together these papers caution: shaving items or using generic norms can wreck validity for our kids.
Why it matters
If you screen at school or intake, keep using the ADOS-2 or full ASRS for now. The 17-item short form is tempting because it is fast, but Amy’s data show it lets too many autistic students slip through. Treat it as a work in progress, not a shortcut.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There is a need for research on autism questionnaire psychometrics outside of the standardization sample. This study investigated the factor structure of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales-Parent report for ages 6-18 (ASRSp6) in a well-characterized community sample of 696 children (autism [AUT] n = 231; non-autism [NOT] n = 465; X̄age = 10.03) prospectively evaluated with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2, a gold-standard autism diagnostic measure. The original author-identified structure demonstrated poor model fit. Exploratory Factor Analysis with a randomly selected half of the sample (n = 346) suggested retaining 17-items on three factors (Rigid/Sensory, Social, and Executive Function [EF]), explaining 55% of the variance. Confirmatory Factor Analysis with the remaining participants (n = 350) indicated good model fit. Partial measurement invariance was observed for diagnostic (AUT/NOT) and gender (male/female) groups. Correlations with the DSM-5p6 (an ASRSp6 scale) were high. Mean differences were observed between AUT/NOT groups for Social; when controlling for age, marginal differences (p = 0.02 - 0.03) were observed for all factors but EF. Social also demonstrated significant AUC regardless of control variables. However, AUC values for Social and other factors, while significant, were in the poor range; correlations with ADOS-2 scores were weak or non-significant. Despite improving the factor structure, the Total-17 does not appear to measure ASD-specific traits. However, these findings provide a basis for further research on ASD questionnaires.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1007/s10803-025-06801-3