Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
ARTICLESValidation of the Social Communication Questionnaire in a Population Cohort of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders
Section snippets
METHOD
The study was approved by the South East Multicentre Research Ethics Committee (REC) (00/01/50), East Sussex Local REC (04/Q/1905/6), and West Kent Local REC (153/8/02).
SNAP Sample
The mean SCQ score in the at-risk sample was 15.2 (SD 8.6) and the sample scored across nearly the full range of the possible scores (0-39). Figure 2 shows the distribution of SCQ scores for the 255 cases seen for a research diagnostic assessment, stacked by consensus diagnosis. The bimodal distribution is due to the stratified sample design of the prevalence study (see Baird et al., 2006 for details). Figure 2 shows exact frequencies; however, all of the subsequent analyses on the at-risk
Properties of the SCQ in the At-Risk SNAP Sample
In the population-weighted SNAP sample, the SCQ discriminated well between children with and without ASD at the established cutpoint of ≥15. The Se (0.88) and Sp (0.72) were similar to that in the initial validation study (Se = 0.85; Sp = 0.75; Berument et al., 1999) and also compare well with those of two other recently published screening instruments for ASD (Social and Communication Disorders Checklist: Se = 0.90, Sp = 0.69 Skuse et al., 2005; Social Responsiveness Scale: Se = 0.85, Sp =
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The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, United Kingdom. The authors are grateful to the children and families who participated in the study and to the clinical teams, whose collaboration made the study possible. They thank the expert group, Patrick Bolton, Antony Cox, Anne Gilchrist, Rebecca Landa, Ann Le Couteur, Catherine Lord, Lennart Pedersen, and Michael Rutter. Thanks also to Iris Carcani-Rathwell, Greg Pasco, Samantha Ross, Emma Rowley, Vicky Slonims, and Martha Turner for their help with assessments.
Disclosure: Prof. Baird has served as an occasional expert witness for the diagnosis of autism. Prof. Pickles receives royalties from SCQ and ADOS-G instruments. The other authors have no financial relationships to disclose.