Informant Discrepancies in the Assessment of Social Skills and Behaviors of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

This study examined informant discrepancies for parent and teacher ratings of social skills and behavioral flexibility/regulation of 124 U.S. children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ages 6 to 11 years. Scores on the Adapted Skillstreaming Checklist (ASC) were examined for mean differences, level of agreement, and moderators of difference scores between informant groups. Results indicated no significant differences between parent and teacher ASC mean scores. Parent and teacher scores were low-to-moderately correlated (intraclass correlation coefficient = .30 and Pearson r = .18) and the Bland–Altman plot and regression analysis revealed no systematic differences in agreement across the range of scores. None of the variables moderated the parent–teacher difference scores. Overall, practitioners should not necessarily anticipate parent–teacher differences when using the ASC for group-level comparisons. However, ratings were less consistent (modest correlations) at the individual child level. Less agreement at the individual child level suggests that practitioners should be prepared to follow-up and clarify the reason(s) for the differences.