Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Third Edition (CV-GARS-3).
The Chinese GARS-3 works well for autism screening, fixing the weak spots that plagued earlier English versions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team translated the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Third Edition into Chinese.
They gave the form to children with autism, other diagnoses, and neurotypical kids.
Then they checked if scores were stable, if the subscales made sense, and how often the test flagged the right kids.
What they found
Both the four-subscale and six-subscale versions looked solid.
The test caught autism 86 to 89 percent of the time, a clear win for a quick screener.
How this fits with other research
Lecavalier (2005) and Pandolfi et al. (2010) hammered the earlier GARS and GARS-2 for missing too many cases and having messy subscales.
Yang et al. (2026) show the GARS-3 fixed those holes in a Chinese sample, so the new edition appears to supersede the old ones.
Sutton et al. (2022) warn that girls score lower on most GARS-3 items except fear; pair the scale with sex-aware clinical judgment to avoid under-identification.
Why it matters
If you serve Mandarin-speaking families, you now have a psychometrically sound parent-and-teacher form that is ready for intake or triage.
Still watch for shy girls who may hit the fear item but otherwise look typical; consider a second measure or direct observation before you rule autism out.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Third Edition (GARS-3) serves as an effective screening tool for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is based on the latest and authoritative diagnostic criteria, however, there is a deficiency in adaptive research in China. We aimed to revise the Chinese version of GARS-3 (CV-GARS-3) and evaluate its psychometric characteristics, providing a theoretical basis for the improvement of ASD screening tools in China. This study developed CV-GARS-3 through translation and cultural adaptation of GARS-3. 362 ASD individuals, 126 typical development individuals, and 103 individuals with other disorders were recruited to analyze the psychometric characteristics of CV-GARS-3. The results showed that exploratory structural equation model demonstrated satisfactory goodness-of-fit. Within the non-verbal ASD samples, all items loaded on anticipated factors. Regarding verbal ASD samples, 3 items exhibited considerable cross-loadings and were categorized under unexpected factors. Meanwhile, acceptable criterion validity was reflected in the four subscales (r = 0.71) and the six subscales (r = 0.74). Satisfactory reliability was observed in the four subscales (Cronbach's α = 0.96, inter-rater consistency = 0.86, test-retest consistency = 0.87) and the six subscales (Cronbach's α = 0.94, inter-rater consistency = 0.81, test-retest consistency = 0.81). In addition, receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that both the four subscales (sensitivity = 89%, specificity = 85%, accuracy = 88%) and the six subscales (sensitivity = 86%, specificity = 88%, accuracy = 86%) had outstanding screening effects. Therefore, the results suggested that the CV-GARS-3 is considered as a useful tool for the screening and auxiliary diagnosis of ASD. Notably, the expression of scale should be further improved to adapt the context of Chinese culture and achieve more precise diagnostic results.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026 · doi:10.2147/NDT.S331987