Publication date: February 2020
Source: Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 70
Author(s): Dalia Vėlavičienė, Virginija Adomaitienė, Goda Traidaraitė
Abstract
Background
The process of adapting and validating standardised methods commonly used around the world for screening and assessing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is just beginning in the Baltic states. To date, only the Childhood Autism Rating Scale has been validated, 19 years ago in Lithuania. The current study was conducted to assess the internal consistency, concurrent validity, sensitivity and specificity of one of the internationally recognised scales for quantitatively assessing the features of autism—the Social Responsiveness Scale–Second Edition (SRS-2) parent form —translated into Lithuanian.
Methods
The study sample consisted of an ASD sample of 33 participants with a mean age of 10.5 years (SD = 2.8) and an age-matched normative sample of 99 participants with a mean age of 9.8 years (SD = 2.8). The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and the SRS-2 were completed by parents. Reliability was assessed by calculating internal consistency, the sensitivity and specificity of the scale was determined through receiver operating characteristic analysis and concurrent validity was explored using Spearman’s correlations.
Results
In accordance with previous findings, the internal consistency of the SRS was satisfactory to good. Good concurrent validity was also found. The SRS-2 showed an ability to differentiate participants with ASD from control participants with excellent sensitivity. All intercorrelations between the SRS-2 and the CBCL syndrome scales were significant.
Conclusions
Our results demonstrate the high sensitivity of the SRS-2 parent form. This implies that the SRS-2 subscales may have utility in Lithuanian research as well as in clinical practice for appropriately targeted interventions.