How do children and youth with autism spectrum disorder self-report on behavior? A study of the validity indexes on the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition, self-report of personality.
BASC-2 self-report is fair game for autistic youth who have IQ ≥ 80 and low attention problems.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked kids and teens to fill out the BASC-2 self-report form.
They compared answers from youth with autism to answers from neurotypical youth.
They also checked if IQ and attention problems changed how valid the scores were.
What they found
Youth with autism can give useful self-report data.
Their answers were a little less valid than those of typical peers.
Lower IQ or big attention problems hurt validity more than autism itself.
How this fits with other research
Lemons et al. (2015) looked at BASC-2 anxiety sub-scales in the same age group.
They also found the tool works, so the new study repeats that good news.
Knott et al. (2006) saw that kids rate their social skills higher than parents do.
This new paper adds that IQ and attention explain why some kids’ ratings are less solid.
Payne et al. (2020) found parent-report beats self-report in adults.
Together the papers say: check IQ and attention before trusting any self-report in autism.
Why it matters
You can use BASC-2 self-report with autistic clients if they have IQ near 80 and few attention problems.
If IQ is lower or ADHD symptoms are strong, collect parent or teacher data instead.
This saves you time and keeps your assessment legally defensible.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Using self-report questionnaires is an important method in the assessment and treatment of children with autism. Self-reports can provide unique information about children's feelings and thoughts that is not available through other methods such as parent-reports. However, many clinicians are not sure whether children with autism can provide accurate self-reports. To study this, we examined 139 children and youth with and without autism aged 8-17 years. We looked at the effect of having autism, as well as other factors such as age, intelligence quotient, and attention problems on the validity of self-reports in these children. We examined if the children gave overly negative or positive answers and if they responded to the questions randomly or without paying attention. We found that children with autism can provide acceptable self-reports. However, they have more validity problems compared to their peers without autism. Our findings showed that this difference might be related to having attention problems in addition to autism, rather than having autism by itself. Children, with and without autism spectrum disorder, with fewer attention problems and higher intelligence quotient scores and those in the older age group, showed better validity. This article suggests that clinicians can use self-report measures for children with autism, but they should pay attention to important factors such as children's intelligence quotient and attention problems.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/1362361320984601