Psychometric concerns with the 10-item Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ10) as a measure of trait autism in the general population

Taylor, Emily C., Livingston, Lucy A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8597-6525, Clutterbuck, Rachel A. and Shah, Punit 2020. Psychometric concerns with the 10-item Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ10) as a measure of trait autism in the general population. Experimental Results 1 , e3. 10.1017/exp.2019.3

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Abstract

The 10-item Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ10) is a self-report questionnaire used in clinical and research settings as a diagnostic screening tool for autism in adults. The AQ10 is also increasingly being used to quantify trait autism along a unitary dimension and correlated against performance on other psychological/medical tasks. However, its psychometric properties have yet to be examined when used in this way. By analysing AQ10 data from a large non-clinical sample of adults (n = 6,595), we found that the AQ10 does not have a unifactorial factor structure, and instead appears to have several factors. The AQ10 also had poor internal reliability. Taken together, whilst the AQ10 has important clinical utility in screening for diagnosable autism, it may not be a psychometrically robust measure when administered in non-clinical samples from the general population. Therefore, we caution against its use as a measure of trait autism in future research.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
ISSN:	2516-712X
Funders:	ESRC, MRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 March 2020
Date of Acceptance:	11 December 2019
Last Modified:	03 May 2023 13:57
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/130160

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