Heterogeneity of subclinical autistic traits among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: Identifying the broader autism phenotype with a data-driven method.
Among parents, the Communication subscale of the Autism Spectrum Quotient best flags the broader autism phenotype.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bora et al. (2017) looked at 532 parents of children with or without autism. Each parent filled out the 50-item Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ).
The team used latent-class analysis. This is a computer method that finds hidden groups inside test scores without guessing first.
What they found
Two clear parent groups popped out: low AQ and high AQ. Parents who have a child with autism were 2.8 times more likely to land in the high group.
The Communication subscale pushed the split the most. In plain words, questions like “I prefer to talk about facts, not feelings” best flagged the broader autism phenotype.
How this fits with other research
Emerson et al. (2007) built the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) and showed it catches the same traits. Emre’s work says the older AQ can do it too, so you can keep using either tool.
Muller et al. (2022) later showed parents who score high on these traits over-rate autism symptoms in their kids. Emre tells us which AQ items drive that high score—use the Communication questions first.
Koegel et al. (2014) warned AQ raw scores should not be compared straight across ASD and non-ASD groups. Emre sidesteps this by looking only at parents, not mixing clients and adults.
Why it matters
If you screen parents during intake, give extra weight to the Communication items on the AQ. A high score there is the clearest single clue for the broader autism phenotype. Knowing this helps you judge how much to trust parent reports and plan parent training that fits their social-cognitive style.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be conceptualized as the extreme end of the distribution of subclinical autistic traits related to genetic susceptibility factors (broad autism phenotype (BAP)) in the general population. Subclinical autistic traits are significantly more common among unaffected first-degree relatives of probands with autism. However, there is a significant heterogeneity of autistic traits in family members of individuals with ASD and severity of autistic traits are not significantly different from controls in the majority of these relatives. The current study investigated the heterogeneity of autistic traits using latent class analysis (LCA) of the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) ratings of 673 parents of children with ASD and 147 parents of typically developing children. Two distinct subgroups, including a "low-scoring" and a "high-scorer (BAP)" groups, were found. In comparison to control parents, a significantly larger proportion (21.1% vs. 7.5%) of parents of ASD were members of BAP group. Communication subscale made a distinctive contribution to the separation of high and low-scoring groups (d = 2.77). Further studies investigating neurobiological and genetic biomarkers and stability of these two subgroups over time are important for understanding the nature of autistic traits in the general population. Autism Res 2017, 10: 321-326. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2017 · doi:10.1002/aur.1661