ArticleJournal of neurodevelopmental disorders2023
Why are only some children with autism spectrum disorder misclassified by the social communication questionnaire? An empirical investigation of individual differences in sensitivity and specificity in a clinic-referred sample.
Article in Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Initial Validation of the Mandarin Translation of the Stanford Social Dimensions Scale (SSDS).Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Delayed Milestones and Demographic Factors Relate to the Accuracy of Autism Screening in Females Using Spoken Language.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- The Social and Communicational Profile of Children Identified with Autism in Ethiopia.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Streamlining Adult Autism Diagnosis: High-yield DSM-5-TR Predictors and Sex-Based Considerations.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Identifying understudied correlations between autism & phenotypic attributes in a large family dataset.BMC psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) is a checklist for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly used in research and clinical practice. While the original validation study suggested that the SCQ was an accurate ASD screener with satisfactory sensitivity and specificity, subsequent studies have yielded mixed results, with some revealing low sensitivity, low specificity, and low utility in some settings.
methodThe present study examined the psychometric properties of the SCQ as well as the individual difference characteristics of 187 individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who were misclassified or accurately classified by the SCQ in a clinic-referred sample.
resultsThe SCQ showed suboptimal sensitivity and specificity, regardless of age and sex. Compared to true positives, individuals classified as false positives displayed greater externalizing and internalizing problems, whereas individuals classified as false negatives displayed better social communication and adaptive skills.
conclusionsThe findings suggest that non-autistic developmental and behavioral individual difference characteristics may explain high rates of misclassification using the SCQ. Clinicians and researchers could consider using the SCQ in combination with other tools for young children with internalizing and externalizing symptoms and other more complex clinical presentations.
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