Abstract
Integrating a screening possibility for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) within the widely applied Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) scales could be of great value for daily clinical practice. The present study explored the ability of the school-aged Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Teacher’s Report Form (TRF) to screen for ASD in children and adolescents (aged 6 to 18 years) within a mixed clinically referred sample. Different screening variants were compared for the CBCL, TRF, and the combination of CBCL and TRF: the separate withdrawn/depressed, social problems, and thought problems syndrome scales; combinations of these syndrome scales; and special ASD scales composed of relevant individual items. Analyses were performed for: youth with a DSM-IV-based clinical diagnosis; youth for which the clinical DSM-IV diagnosis was confirmed by a standardized assessment (the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised); and youth with a DSM-IV- based clinical diagnosis of ASD that also met the DSM-5 criteria. The results clearly demonstrated that the special ASEBA-based scales – in particular when completed by the parents – were most predictive of ASD. The results also indicate that following the initial screen with these ASEBA scales, further thorough diagnostic assessment is necessary to definitively establish whether young people really suffer from ASD.
Highlights
Integrating a screening possibility for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) within the widely applied Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) scales could be of great value for daily clinical practice
It is good to note that the preschool version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1.5–5; Achenbach and Rescorla 2000) already contains a DSM-oriented scale of pervasive developmental problems that can be effectively used to screen for ASD (e.g., Havdahl et al 2016; Myers et al 2014; Muratori et al 2011; Sikora et al 2008), but in the school-aged version of the Achenbach scales a standard subscale for assessing the symptomatology of ASD has not been included
CBCL As can be seen in the upper panel of Table 3, the results showed that the social problems and the thought problems syndrome scales on their own did not discriminate between the ASD and clinical control group
Summary
Integrating a screening possibility for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) within the widely applied Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) scales could be of great value for daily clinical practice. It is good to note that the preschool version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1.5–5; Achenbach and Rescorla 2000) already contains a DSM-oriented scale of pervasive developmental problems that can be effectively used to screen for ASD (e.g., Havdahl et al 2016; Myers et al 2014; Muratori et al 2011; Sikora et al 2008), but in the school-aged version of the Achenbach scales (for children and adolescents of 6–18 years) a standard subscale for assessing the symptomatology of ASD has not been included Both the original and the revised ASEBA scales contain various items (e.g., “Strange behavior”; “Doesn’t get along with other kids”; “Would rather be alone than with others”) and syndrome scales (i.e., depressed-withdrawn, thought problems, social problems) that are highly relevant for ASD. It is not surprising that researchers have begun to evaluate individual syndrome scales, combinations of these scales, and specific sets of items of the ASEBA scales as potential screeners to detect children and adolescents that might be suffering from this type of psychopathology
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