Reliability and Validity of the Interactive Drawing Test: A Measure of Reciprocity for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The Korean SRS reliably measures autism social traits yet can’t separate autism from similar speech-language disorders.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Backer van Ommeren et al. (2015) checked if the Korean Social Responsiveness Scale works for kids with autism. They looked at how reliable the scores are and whether they line up with other autism measures. The study was done with Korean-speaking children who already had an autism diagnosis.
What they found
The Korean SRS showed solid reliability and converged with other autism symptom measures. It caught social difficulties well. However, it could not tell autism apart from other child psychiatric problems like social communication disorder.
How this fits with other research
Eliasziw et al. (2025) extend this work by trimming the SRS to just five items for quick preschool screening. Their short form targets 3- to 5-year-olds in the U.S., moving the tool younger and faster.
Tu et al. (2016) push the scale even further. They linked SRS scores in typical teens to real brain differences—thinner insula and altered dACC connectivity—giving the questionnaire a biological stamp of validity.
Camodeca (2025) sounds a note of caution. That team shortened a different parent scale, the ASRSp6, but the new form failed to sort autism from other issues in a mixed community sample. The result reminds us that shortening does not always keep accuracy.
Why it matters
You can keep using the full Korean SRS to spot social autism traits, but do not rely on it alone for differential diagnosis. Pair it with an ADOS-2 module or language history if you need to rule out SCD. Watch for the five-item preschool version from Misha et al.—once validated it could speed up your intake line. And remember: biology backs the SRS; high scores really do track brain-based social differences.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is an autism rating scales in widespread use, with over 20 official foreign language translations. It has proven highly feasible for quantitative ascertainment of autistic social impairment in public health settings, however, little is known about the validity of the reinforcement in Asia populations or in references to DSM5. The current study aims to evaluate psychometric properties and cross-cultural aspects of the SRS-Korean version (K-SRS).The study subjects were ascertained from three samples: a general sample from 3 regular education elementary schools (n=790), a clinical sample (n=154) of 6-12-year-olds from four psychiatric clinics, and an epidemiological sample of children with ASD, diagnosed using both DSM IV PDD, DSM5 ASD and SCD criteria (n=151). Their parents completed the K-SRS and the Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire(ASSQ). Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses and principal components analysis (PCA) were performed on the total population. Mean total scores on the K-SRS differed significantly between the three samples. ASSQ scores were significantly correlated with the K-SRS T-scores. PCA suggested a one-factor solution for the total population.Our results indicate that the K-SRS exhibits adequate reliability and validity for measuring ASD symptoms in Korean children with DSM IV PDD and DSM5 ASD. Our findings further suggest that it is difficult to distinguish SCD from other child psychiatric conditions using the K-SRS.This is the first study to examine the relationship between the SRS subscales and DSM5-based clinical diagnoses. This study provides cross-cultural confirmation of the factor structure for ASD symptoms and traits measured by the SRS. Autism Res 2016, 9: 970-980. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.12.017