The Primary Modification of the Chinese Version of Autism Spectrum Quotient- Children’s Version (AQ-C)

Background: The Autism Spectrum Quotient-Children’s Version (AQ-C) is a parent-report instrument developed to measure autistic traits in children aged 4-11 years. A Mandarin Chinese translation of the AQ-C is needed for use in research in mainland China.

Objectives:  To develop a Mandarin Chinese translation of the AQ-C, and to test its psychometric validity.

Methods: A total of 536 participants were assessed. A general population sample of 510 children (6.46±1.628 years of age) were recruited from kindergartens and primary schools. 26 autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) were recruited from hospital (5.85±1.434 years of age). Items were eliminated according to the critical ratio and the change of Cronbach’s alpha (α). The structure of the AQ-C was tested using exploratory factor analysis. The childhood autism spectrum test (CAST) and social responsiveness scale (SRS) were used for the validity of the AQ-C.

Results:  A 31-item, 5-factor model achieved adequate goodness of psychometric characteristics, explaining 43.8% of the variance. The five factors were named mindreading, socialness, patterns, imagination and attention switching, respectively. The correlations between scores of the full scale and these factors were 0.776, 0.441, 0.475, 0.342 and 0.569. The Cronbach’s α of the full scale was 0.742, and the five subscales’ α ranged from 0.500 to 0.788. The total score was highly correlated with CAST and SRS (r=0.520, 0.587; P<0.001). ASCs scored significantly higher than the general population (ASCs: 53.58±9.97, general population: 34.18±9.15; t=10.49, P<0.001).

Conclusions:  The Chinese AQ-C showed favorable reliability and validity in the preliminary analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis of a larger sample size is warranted.