The CBCL/1½-5's DSM-ASD Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analyses Across 24 Societies.
The CBCL/1½-5 ASD scale works the same in 24 cultures, and five items are the clearest early warning signs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran the same math test on parent reports from 24 countries. They used the CBCL/1½-5 DSM-ASD scale. This scale has 12 yes-or-no items about odd play, rocking, or limited speech.
They asked: does the scale work the same way in every culture? They used confirmatory factor analysis to check.
What they found
The scale kept the same shape everywhere. Five items stood out as the best red flags. These items point to kids who may need an ASD evaluation.
The scale is ready for worldwide screening, not just Western samples.
How this fits with other research
Pitchford et al. (2019) first showed the scale holds up over time in one Dutch city. The new study widens the lens to 24 societies and still finds invariance.
Pitchford et al. (2019) survey paper also flagged four low-rate items as top screeners. The 2020 CFA confirms four of those five, so the two papers echo each other.
Embregts (2000) warns that CBCL reliability drops in older kids with ID. The 2020 study did not test that group, so keep the ID caution in mind.
Why it matters
You can trust the CBCL ASD scale no matter where your families come from. Focus on the five high-value items when you triage referrals. If a child scores high there, move them up the evaluation list.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous research supports the CBCL/1½-5's DSM-ASD scale (and its precursor, the DSM-PDP scale) as a Level 1 ASD screener. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) with data from population samples in 24 societies (N = 19,850) indicated good measurement invariance across societies, especially for configural and metric invariance. Items 4. 25, 67, 80, and 98 may be especially good discriminators of ASD because they have tend to have low base rates, strong loadings on the ASD latent construct, and the best measurement invariance across societies. Further research is needed to test the discriminative power of these items in predicting ASD, but our strong measurement findings support the international psychometric robustness of the CBCL/1½-5's DSM-ASD scale.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2020 · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04189-5