The purpose of this study was to develop an indigenous Scale of autism spectrum disorder in Urdu language and establish its psychometric properties. The study was divided into two phases. Initially, item pool of 153 items was generated through different literature, theories, and seeking experts’ opinion by face-to-face interview from psychologists, autistic individuals’ parent and teachers. After expert evaluation, 148 items were retained. The significance of the items was assessed using total item correlation in pilot study on a sample of n=40 diagnosed autistic individuals, so 75 items remain. That was used for final administration on the sample (N=143). The sample was selected from different cities of Pakistan through convenient sampling. Rotated component matrix analysis of 75 items showed that factors loading range from 0.402 to 0.789. The sample adequacy tested KMO=0.86 on 75 items and then factor loading loaded the 59 items in 3 factors. CFI value 0.942 with the p<0.05 indicated significant model fit with appropriate model fit indices. And the final version of 15 items was obtained. Convergent validity was demonstrated via significant correlation (r=0.81, p=.00) at the 0.01 alpha level with CARS on the sample of n=50. The indigenous scale also confirmed good test-retest reliability (r=0. 950, p=.000) at 0.01 alpha level. Which indicates the scale as a valid and reliable measure for diagnosing the individuals with autism spectrum disorder. This scale can be used by researchers, psychologists, psychiatrists for the general population to measure the prevalence. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-21) and AMOS were used for all statistical computations.

Authors: Bahadar Shah, Tasmia Ijaz, Zaqia Bano

Published in: Canada International Conference on Education, 2023

• Date of Conference: 26-28 June, 2023
• DOI: 10.20533/CICE.2023.0013
• Electronic ISBN: 978-1-913572-58-7
• Conference Location: Residence and Conference Centre, Toronto, Canada