Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Screening tools for early detection in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) reduce diagnostic and ref- erence time by up to 70% (Mcpheeters et al.,2016). Most of these screening, for example, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers Revised with Follow-up (M-CHAT-R / F) (Robins et al.,2012) quantify autistic traits as a categorical variable. In contrast, the Quantitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (Q-CHAT) (Allison et al.,2008) is a screening tool which quantifies autistic traits as a continuous-variable. The above is consistent with the conceptualization of ASD as a heterogeneous dimension of traits (Constantino & Charman,2016). The need to have a culturally relevant screening in Chile and quantitatively quantify ASD traits motivate this research. In this communication, preliminary results of the validation study of Q-CHAT/adapted in Chile are reported. OBJECTIVES: 1)Study the psychometric properties of an adapted version of (Q-CHAT); 2)Determine evidence of the reliability of the Q-CHAT/adapted, by internal consistency; 3)Determine evidence of concurrent validity of the Q-CHAT/ adapted, with the M-CHAT. METHODS: Participants: An intentional non-probabilistic sampling was used, selecting 145 children between 18 and 24 months of age. Design: Study of descriptive-correlational scope. Procedures: The transcultural adaptation of the Q-CHAT was performed, following an analytical-rational procedure (Elosua et al.,2014). All mothers and /or fathers and/or pri- mary caregivers of children between 18-24 months attending child health checks were offered to participate, responding to a printed version of the Q-CHAT / adapted, the M-CHAT-R/F-Chilean-version (Coelho-Medeiros et al.,2017) and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed with the statistical program SPSS-V25. RESULTS: Table 1 summarizes the sociodemographic variables studied. The mean score in the sample was 32.83 (range:6-63; SD=9.43). Total scores are distributed normally in the sample. The internal consistency of the Q-CHAT/ adapted according to the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was shown to be adequate for the test in general (α=0.68). For items that evaluate social communication, consistency was Good (α=0.80) and for items that measure repetitive and restrictive behavior, it was adequate (α=0.71). Regarding the concurrent validity, the correlation between the Q-CHAT and the M-CHAT scores was positive and statistically significant (r =0.581, p <0.0001). As a measure of the discriminating ability of the test, item-total correlations were analyzed (Table 2). CONCLUSIONS: This study reports preliminary results of a tool that can be used in Chile as a culturally relevant screen- ing and with preliminary evidence of reliability and validity. Regarding the total Q-CHAT scores in our sample, these are similar to those reported by others authors (Magiati et al.,2015 and Wong et al.,2014). Regarding internal consistency, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the test as a whole is identical to that reported by Ruuta et al.(2019), but unlike these authors, our sample shows higher α coefficients in the items that are grouped, evaluate the socio-cognitive skills. Re- garding the concurrent validity, the Q-CHAT/M-CHAT correlation can be considered good (0.50 <r <0.60) (Prieto and Muñiz,2000). As an approach to the analysis of the Q-CHAT elements, the total item-test correlation shows an adequate discriminative capacity of the items. The current sample does not allow the confirmatory Factor Analysis that is expected with a sample of at least N = 200.