Autism has been a subject of ever increasing interest over the last 20 years. It has been the subject of popular TV shows, novels and numerous studies looking at everything from sensory experiences to mental health in autism. As a result, there is a growing need for efficient and reliable ways to measure autism levels.
In research, autism personality trait measures are commonly used to investigate autistic traits in the population and whether or not they relate to other psychological traits. Recently, for example, autism personality trait tests were used to investigate how autism relates to empathy in the general population.
One common questionnaire – used by doctors and researchers – is the “10-item autism-spectrum quotient (AQ-10)”. The AQ-10 comprises ten statements like those mentioned above, with participants asked to state how much they agree or disagree.
But despite the popularity of the AQ-10 test, little research has been done to find out if the test has good “psychological reliability”. This can be measured by seeing how well the questions in the test are linked to each other and by testing whether it is measuring one thing – autism – or just a mix of several different things, such as empathy and attention to detail.
To address these questions, a new study by our research group analysed responses to the AQ-10 from over 6,500 people who had completed the test online.
Improvement needed
Using advanced statistical analyses, we found that the AQ-10 lacks reliability as a measure of autism personality traits. Most of its questions did not hang well together, which is not ideal as the total scores are being used in research. Additional analyses suggested that the test was possibly measuring several psychological processes and behaviours – not just autism.
Our findings contribute to a growing awareness that many psychological methods used in autism research need to be improved. We analysed just one of many autism questionnaires. It is clear that we need more studies to see if other autism tests have similar issues.
This is important because issues with autism personality tests may be slowing down research, confusing doctors and misleading the public about autism. It is crucial that we continue doing research to study and refine autism personality questionnaires, which will be important for the continued improvement in understanding and supporting people with autistic traits and diagnosed autism in society.