The children's social behavior questionnaire for milder variants of PDD problems: Evaluation of the psychometric characteristics

The Children's Social Behavior Questionnaire (CSBQ) contains items referrin g to behavior problems seen in children with milder variants of PDD. Data o f large samples of children diagnosed as having high-functioning autism, PD DNOS, ADHD, and other child-psychiatric disorders were gathered. Besides th e CSBQ, parents completed the Autism Behavior Check list (ABC) and the Chil d Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The data provided the basis for scale construc tion of the CSBQ, a comparison of the CSBQ scales with other instruments an d a comparison of groups on scores on the CSBQ. The 5 scales obtained refer red to Acting-out behaviors, Social Contact problems, Social Insight proble ms, Anxious/Rigid behaviors and Stereotypical behaviors. Results show that the CSBQ has good psychometric qualities with respect to both reliability a nd validity. A comparison of the different groups showed that significant g roup differences were found on all scales. in general, the autism group rec eived the highest scores, followed by the PDDNOS group and the ADHD group. Exceptions were on the Acting-out scale, where the ADHD group scored highes t and on the Social Insight scale, where no significant. difference was fou nd between the PDDNOS group and the ADHD group. Implications of the results and suggestions for further research are dicussed.