Distributional properties and criterion validity of a shortened version of the social responsiveness scale: Results from the ECHO program and implications for social communication research

Diane J. Catellier; Kristen Lyall; Mina Hosseini; Christine Ladd-Acosta; Xuejuan Ning; Diane J. Catellier; John N Constantino; Lisa A Croen; Aaron J Kaat; Kelly N Botteron; Nicole R Bush; Stephen R Dager; Cristiane S Duarte; Margaret Daniele Fallin; Heather Hazlett; Irva Hertz-Picciotto; Robert M Joseph; Margaret R Karagas; Susan Korrick; Rebecca Landa; Daniel Messinger; Emily Oken; Sally Ozonoff; Joseph Piven; Juhi Pandey; Sheela Sathyanarayana; Robert T Schultz; Tanya St John; Rebecca Schmidt; Heather Volk; Craig J Newschaffer

Distributional properties and criterion validity of a shortened version of the social responsiveness scale

Results from the ECHO program and implications for social communication research

Lyall, K., Hosseini, M., Ladd-Acosta, C., Ning, X., Catellier, D., Constantino, J. N., Croen, L. A., Kaat, A. J., Botteron, K., Bush, N. R., Dager, S. R., Duarte, C. S., Fallin, M. D., Hazlett, H., Hertz-Picciotto, I., Joseph, R. M., Karagas, M. R., Korrick, S., Landa, R., ... Program Collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (2021). Distributional properties and criterion validity of a shortened version of the social responsiveness scale: Results from the ECHO program and implications for social communication research. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(7), 2241-2253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04667-1

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Abstract

Prior work proposed a shortened version of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a commonly used quantitative measure of social communication traits. We used data from 3031 participants (including 190 ASD cases) from the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program to compare distributional properties and criterion validity of 16-item "short" to 65-item "full" SRS scores. Results demonstrated highly overlapping distributions of short and full scores. Both scores separated case from non-case individuals by approximately two standard deviations. ASD prediction was nearly identical for short and full scores (area under the curve values of 0.87, 0.86 respectively). Findings support comparability of shortened and full scores, suggesting opportunities to increase efficiency. Future work should confirm additional psychometric properties of short scores.