The Home Situations Questionnaire-PDD version: factor structure and psychometric properties.
The HSQ-PDD gives caregivers a quick, psychometrically sound way to quantify everyday non-compliance in kids with PDDs via two factors: Socially Inflexible and Demand-Specific.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers asked the caregivers of kids with PDD to fill out the Home Situations Questionnaire-PDD. The form lists 25 everyday moments like 'when asked to turn off the TV' or 'when told to brush teeth'.
Each item is scored 0-3 for how often and how hard the child resists. The team ran a factor analysis to see if the items group into clear themes.
What they found
Two clean factors emerged. Factor 1, 'Socially Inflexible', covers times when the child must shift attention or share space. Factor 2, 'Demand-Specific', covers direct requests to start or stop an activity.
Both factors showed good internal consistency (alpha > .80) and lined up with other behavior checklists, giving clinicians a quick, reliable snapshot of where and when non-compliance flares up.
How this fits with other research
Moore et al. (2020) also validated a caregiver tool for autism, but they found the parent-completed PEAK-IA over-reported skills compared to the clinician-run PEAK-PA. The HSQ-PDD avoids this gap by asking only about observable home routines, not abstract language gains.
Butler et al. (2021) showed edible preferences stay stable for months, so you can test them less often. Likewise, the HSQ-PDD factors proved internally stable, meaning you can trust the scores without re-testing every week.
Wilson et al. (2024) compared video versus picture modes in preference assessments and found mode matters for stability. The HSQ-PDD keeps mode simple—paper or interview—so scores stay consistent across families.
Why it matters
You now have a 5-minute caregiver scale that tells you which situations trigger refusal. Use Factor 1 scores to plan social-curriculum targets like turn-taking, and Factor 2 scores to pre-teach compliance during transitions. No extra clinic time, just better context for your FBA.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Hand the 25-item HSQ-PDD to parents at intake, score the two factors, and let the higher factor guide your first compliance intervention.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The Home Situations Questionnaire (HSQ) is a caregiver-rated scale designed to assess behavioural non-compliance in everyday settings that has been used in several studies in typically developing children. Currently there is no accepted measure of behavioural non-compliance in children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs). METHODS: Investigators of the Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology Autism Network modified the HSQ for children with PDDs by adding five items (making 25 total items), and used it as the primary outcome measure in a clinical trial. In the current investigation, we examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the modified scale, the HSQ-PDD. RESULTS: An exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotations yielded two factors: 'Socially Inflexible' (14 items) and 'Demand-Specific' (six items). Item content of both factors appeared to fit well with the rubric of PDDs. Internal consistency, using Cronbach's alpha statistic, was 0.90 for 'Socially Inflexible', and 0.80 for 'Demand-Specific.' The obtained sub-scales and HSQ-PDD Total score showed moderate correlations with selected sub-scales of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory, and Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, and low correlations with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior sub-scales. CONCLUSIONS: The HSQ-PDD appears to be well suited for children with PDDs, although the Demand-Specific sub-scale may benefit from addition of more items. We provided sub-scale means and standard deviations for this relatively severe group of children with PDDs, and discussed the factor structure with respect to previous research.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2010 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01259.x