Teachers Are Important Too! Incremental Validity of BASC-2 TRS in Predicting DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Disorder Severity Ratings

Background: The DSM-5 conceptualizes the diagnostic criteria of autism as existing along a dimensional framework. Diagnosing clinicians must identify severity levels based on the amount of support needed in the areas of Social Communication (SC) and Restricted/Repetitive Behaviors (RRB).  One clinician method for ascertaining a summary of client behavior is the broadband behavior-rating scale.   Receiving behavior rating input from multiple informants is imperative; allowing for data to be gathered beyond what can be obtained from a single informant and for behavior to be represented as it occurs in multiple contexts (Kamphaus et al., 2000).  The Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2), one widely utilized instrument, is a multidimensional measure assessing internalizing and externalizing behaviors as well as adaptive functioning.

Objectives: The current investigation evaluated and compared how both parents and teachers view and report behaviors of individuals with ASD utilizing the BASC-2 Parent Rating Scale (PRS) and Teacher Rating Scale (TRS).

Methods: This research used archival data from university clinic records. The sample contained 67 individuals with ASD (59 males and 8 females) with age ranging from 26 to 217 months. Two expert reviewers confirmed that participants met DSM-5 ASD criteria and assigned severity ratings.  . 

Results: We tested whether teacher ratings would account for incremental variance above and beyond parent ratings of rationally selected BASC-2 Subscales (Adaptability, Aggression, Atypicality, Functional Communication, Social Skills and Withdrawal) in predicting the Severity Ratings for SC and RRB. We examined hierarchical regression analyses in which the parent ratings were entered in the first block of the regression model and the teacher ratings were added second as predictors of SC and RRB (see Table 1 and 2 respectively). Overall, teacher ratings enhanced the parent ratings of Adaptability, Atypicality, Functional Communication, Social Skills and Withdrawal when predicting the severity of SC. Teacher ratings augmented the parent ratings of Atypicality, Functional Communication, and Withdrawal when predicting the severity of RRB. The order of predictors was reversed to determine if this pattern would be replicated. Results yielded a significant incremental addition of the parent ratings to the teacher ratings of Functional Communication and Social Skills in predicting SC; this result was also evident for Functional Communication, Social Skills, and Withdrawal in predicting the severity RRB.

Conclusions: Predominately, teacher reports accounted for more predictive variance in our sample; teachers are providing incremental information above what is provided by parents. This is not to say that parents are unnecessary in the assessment process.  As previous research demonstrates, parent-completed behavior ratings are a necessary and integral part to understanding a child’s behavior (Bergeron et al., 2008). The results indicate that having teachers rate a child with ASD on the BASC-2 is necessary in addition to having the parents rate the same child. Both the BASC-2 PRS and TRS had unique predictive variance for particular scales. This information shows that both parents and teachers provide their own unique data when rating individuals with ASD.  Teachers have important, additional viewpoints that should be utilized.