BACKGROUND: Poor social skills are associated with a range of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders, with deficits being particularly marked in autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Here, we validate a brief measure of social aptitudes where low scores are designed to index a substantially raised risk of ASDs. METHOD: Parents of a national community sample of 7,977 British 5-16 year olds completed the Social Aptitudes Scale (SAS) as well as a general questionnaire measure of psychopathology, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Psychiatric diagnoses were assigned by clinical raters on the basis of detailed multi-informant information. RESULTS: All ten items of the SAS loaded onto a single latent factor, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88. Correlations between the SAS and the SDQ were only modest, suggesting that the SAS measures different attributes to the SDQ. The SAS was significantly better than the SDQ at identifying ASDs. CONCLUSION: Children and adolescents with low SAS scores are at increased risk of mental health problems, particularly ASDs.
BACKGROUND: Poor social skills are associated with a range of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders, with deficits being particularly marked in autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Here, we validate a brief measure of social aptitudes where low scores are designed to index a substantially raised risk of ASDs. METHOD: Parents of a national community sample of 7,977 British 5-16 year olds completed the Social Aptitudes Scale (SAS) as well as a general questionnaire measure of psychopathology, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Psychiatric diagnoses were assigned by clinical raters on the basis of detailed multi-informant information. RESULTS: All ten items of the SAS loaded onto a single latent factor, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88. Correlations between the SAS and the SDQ were only modest, suggesting that the SAS measures different attributes to the SDQ. The SAS was significantly better than the SDQ at identifying ASDs. CONCLUSION:Children and adolescents with low SAS scores are at increased risk of mental health problems, particularly ASDs.
Authors: G Baird; T Charman; S Baron-Cohen; A Cox; J Swettenham; S Wheelwright; A Drew Journal: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry Date: 2000-06 Impact factor: 8.829
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Authors: Luiza Kvitko Axelrud; André Rafael Simioni; Daniel Samuel Pine; Anderson Marcelo Winkler; Pedro Mario Pan; João Ricardo Sato; André Zugman; Nadine Parker; Felipe Picon; Andrea Jackowski; Marcelo Queiroz Hoexter; Gareth Barker; Jean-Luc Martinot; Marie Laure Paillère Martinot; Theodore Satterthwaite; Luis Augusto Rohde; Michael Milham; Edward Dylan Barker; Giovanni Abrahão Salum Journal: Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry Date: 2020-10-08 Impact factor: 5.349
Authors: Luiza Kvitko Axelrud; Diogo Araújo DeSousa; Gisele Gus Manfro; Pedro Mario Pan; Ana Cláudia Knackfuss; Jair de Jesus Mari; Eurípedes Constantino Miguel; Luis Augusto Rohde; Giovanni Abrahão Salum Journal: Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol Date: 2017-05-31 Impact factor: 4.328