Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2002; 41(11):1369-1375

Screening Young People for Autism With the Developmental Behavior Checklist

AVRIL V. BRERETON, PH.D.; BRUCE J. TONGE, M.D.; ANDREW J. MACKINNON, PH.D.; STEWART L. EINFELD, M.D.

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To determine whether a subset of items from the Developmental Behavior Checklist (DBC) could be selected to construct a reliable autism screening tool.

Method:

A 29-item scale-the Developmental Behavior Checklist-Autism Screening Algorithm (DBC-ASA)-was developed by using items from the DBC and evaluated in a sample comprising 180 children who met criteria for DSM-IV autism and 180 controls matched for age, sex, and IQ range.

Results:

This study found that the DBC-ASA has good validity in discriminating young people (4-18 years) with autism and IQ ranging from normal to severe intellectual disability from others using a cutoff score of 17.

Conclusion:

The DBC-ASA is an effective autism screening questionnaire for at-risk young people, including those with intellectual disability.

Key Words: autism; intellectual disability; screening instrument

Accepted May 10, 2002.

Drs. Brereton and Tonge are with the Monash University Centre for Developmental Psychiatry; Dr. Mackinnon is with the Monash University Department of Psychological Medicine and Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria; and Dr. Einfeld is with the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, and Monash University Centre for Developmental Psychiatry.

This research was supported in part by PHRDC (NH & MRC) Program Grant 95614. The authors thank participating families, specialist autism assessment services in Melbourne and Geelong (Victoria), the rural Murray-Murrumbidgee region of New South Wales, and the Autism Associations of South Australia and New South Wales. Heather Siddons, Russell Nunn, and Kylie Gray assisted with data management and statistical analysis.

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2002; 41(11):1369-1375

Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

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