Psychometric properties of the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ) among caregivers of children with autism.
The CGSQ is a reliable 21-item tool you can start using today to measure caregiver strain in autism families.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Khanna et al. (2012) ran a one-time survey with parents of children with autism.
They wanted to see if the 21-item Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ) gives clear, steady scores for this group.
The team checked internal consistency and factor structure to decide if clinicians can trust the numbers.
What they found
The CGSQ held together well. Items hung in one tight group and showed good reliability.
Parents’ total strain scores looked stable, so the tool appears ready for clinic use.
How this fits with other research
Green et al. (2020) did the same kind of check on the French Parental Stress Index-Short Form. They also found a short 21-item scale that works, giving you a second valid option if you serve bilingual families.
Olsen et al. (2021) trimmed caregiver stress measurement even more. Their 8-item Kingston scale gave solid scores for Romanian caregivers of mixed-disability clients, showing that briefer tools can still be trusted.
Saad (2025) moved past validation and used a 15-item Parental Stress Scale to show how child sleep problems drive caregiver stress. The CGSQ now joins these sister scales, giving autism teams a full menu: use CGSQ for strain, PSI-SF for general stress, KCSS for a super-short screen, or PSS when you model stress pathways.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, free 21-item form that quantifies caregiver strain in autism families. Add it to intake packets, re-administer every six months, and use rising scores as a flag for respite referrals or parent training. No extra training is needed—just print, score, and talk numbers with families.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ) among caregivers of children with autism. The CGSQ was originally developed to assess burden experienced by parents of children and adolescents with serious emotional and behavioral disorders. Study data was collected from 304 primary caregivers of children with autism using a cross-sectional survey design. We tested the one-, two-, and three-factor CGSQ model. Though the three-factor CGSQ model fit better than the one- and two-factor model, it was still short of an acceptable fit. Minor modifications were made to the three-factor model by correlating error terms. The modified three-factor CGSQ model with correlated error indicated reasonable fit with the data. The 21-item CGSQ had good convergent validity, as indicated by the correlation of its three subscales with constructs including mental health-related quality of life, maladaptive coping, social support, family functioning, and care recipient level of functional impairment and extent of behavioral problems, respectively. The internal consistency reliability of the instrument was also good, and there were no floor and ceiling effects. The CGSQ was found to be a reliable and valid instrument to assess burden among caregivers of children with autism.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2012 · doi:10.1177/1362361311406143