ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2019
Quantifying the Optimal Structure of the Autism Phenotype: A Comprehensive Comparison of Dimensional, Categorical, and Hybrid Models.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Intersection of Mitophagy and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Stem Cell Therapy and Models for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Insights and Research.Current neuropharmacology · 2026Review
- Automatic and affective processing of faces as mechanisms of passing as non-autistic in adolescence.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Behavioral and neural interrelationships of sensory difficulties, intolerance of uncertainty, and anxiety in autistic children.Research in autism · 2025Article
- Molecular basis of autism spectrum disorders.Molecular biology reports · 2025Review
- The Relationship between Early Exposure to General Anesthesia and Neurobehavioral Deficits.Developmental neuroscience · 2025Review
- Differential item functioning in the children autism rating scale first edition in children with autism spectrum disorder based on a machine learning approach.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- A Normative Model Representing Autistic Individuals Amidst Autism Spectrum Phenotypic Heterogeneity.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Superior temporal sulcus folding, functional network connectivity, and autistic-like traits in a non-clinical population.Molecular autism · 2024Article
- Where do neurodevelopmental conditions fit in transdiagnostic psychiatric frameworks? Incorporating a new neurodevelopmental spectrum.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2024Article
- Differential item functioning in the autism behavior checklist in children with autism spectrum disorder based on a machine learning approach.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- A new approach to diagnosing and researching developmental prosopagnosia: Excluded cases are impaired too.Behavior research methods · 2023Article
- Fundamental behavioral and neurophysiologic relationships between sensory processing, intolerance of uncertainty, and autistic traits in children: A hybrid approach.Biological psychology · 2023Article
- Conceptualization of the latent structure of autism: further evidence and discussion of dimensional and hybrid models.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2023Article
- Seeking contexts that promote neurodiverse social success: Patterns of behavior during minimally-structured interaction settings in autistic and non-autistic youth.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- What are quantitative traits and how can they be used in autism research?Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2023Article
- Quantifying social skill deficits and strengths profiles in autistic youth.Child development · 2023Article
- Is reduced social competence a mechanism linking elevated autism spectrum symptoms with increased risk for social anxiety?The British journal of clinical psychology · 2023Article
- More than the sum of its parts: Merging network psychometrics and network neuroscience with application in autism.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2022Article
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6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe two primary-seemingly contradictory-strategies for classifying child psychiatric syndromes are categorical and dimensional; conceptual ambiguities appear to be greatest for polythetic syndromes such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recently, a compelling alternative has emerged that integrates both categorical and dimensional approaches (ie, a hybrid model), thanks to the increasing sophistication of analytic procedures. This study aimed to quantify the optimal phenotypic structure of ASD by comprehensively comparing categorical, dimensional, and hybrid models.
methodThe sample comprised 3,825 youth, who were consecutive referrals to a university developmental disabilities or child psychiatric outpatient clinic. Caregivers completed the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory-4R (CASI-4R), which includes an ASD symptom rating scale. A series of latent class analyses, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and factor mixture analyses was conducted. Replication analyses were conducted in an independent sample (N = 2,503) of children referred for outpatient evaluation.
resultsBased on comparison of 44 different models, results indicated that the ASD symptom phenotype is best conceptualized as multidimensional versus a categorical or categorical-dimensional hybrid construct. ASD symptoms were best characterized as falling along three dimensions (ie, social interaction, communication, and repetitive behavior) on the CASI-4R.
conclusionFindings reveal an optimal structure with which to characterize the ASD phenotype using a single, parent-report measure, supporting the presence of multiple correlated symptom dimensions that traverse formal diagnostic boundaries and quantify the heterogeneity of ASD. These findings inform understanding of how neurodevelopmental disorders can extend beyond discrete categories of development and represent continuously distributed traits across the range of human behaviors.
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