Differences Between the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and the Social Responsiveness Scale in Assessing Symptoms of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 Sep;48(9):3191-3198. doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3585-y.

Abstract

This study aimed to compare symptoms of autism spectrum disorder using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS™-2) and to investigate their influencing factors. The diagnostic agreement was 92.7%, but with a fair Kappa value (0.247). Children's verbal comprehension was related to the CARS scores, and no variables were related to the SRS™-2 scores. Generally, significant small correlations were found between the two measures in children with normal or borderline to below average verbal comprehension (rs = 0.32 ~ 0.49, p < .005), but not in those with impaired verbal comprehension. The CARS and the SRS™-2 may contain different explicit behaviors and collect different perspectives (i.e., those of caregivers and professionals). Therefore, they appear to complement each other.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Childhood Autism Rating Scale; Children; Social Responsiveness Scale.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder / diagnosis*
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder / psychology*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Comprehension / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Neuropsychological Tests / standards*
  • Social Skills*
  • Wechsler Scales / standards*