Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Exploratory Factor Analysis of SRS-2 Teacher Ratings for Youth with ASD

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study examined the factor structure and internal consistency of special education teaching staff ratings on the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2; Constantino and Gruber 2012), as well as the percentage of ratings falling above pre-established cut scores, for a sample of lower-functioning youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 264). Results of the exploratory factor analysis yielded a four-factor correlated solution. The individual factors and total score demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency reliability for screening purposes. When applying the lowest pre-established cut score (T ≥ 60; minimum indication of clinically significant symptoms/impairments), 85 % of the sample had ratings in that range or higher (more severe). Implications for assessment and future research are provided.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Achenbach, T. M. (2011). Commentary: Definitely more than measurement error: But how should we understand and deal with informant discrepancies? Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychology, 40(1), 80–86. doi:10.1080/15374416.2011.533416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aldridge, F. J., Gibbs, V. M., Schmidhofer, K., & Williams, M. (2012). Investigating the clinical usefulness of the Social Responsiveness Scales (SRS) in a tertiary level, autism spectrum disorder specific assessment clinic. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 294–300. doi:10.1007/s10803-011-1242-9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.), text revision. Washington, DC: Author.

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basto, M., & Pereira, J. M. (2012). An SPSS R-menu for ordinal factor analysis. Journal of Statistical Software, 46, 1–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayley, N. (2006). Bayley scales of infant and toddler development (3rd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolte, S., Poustka, F., & Constantino, J. N. (2008). Assessing autistic traits: Cross-cultural validation of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Autism Research, 1, 354–363. doi:10.1002/aur.49.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2014). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years—Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 states, United States, 2010. MMWR, 63 (SS-2), 1–21.

  • Charman, T., Baird, G., Simonoff, E., Loucas, T., Chandler, S., Meldrum, D., & Pickles, A. (2007). Efficacy of three screening instruments in the identification of autistic-spectrum disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 191, 554–559. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.107.040196.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. N., Davis, S. A., Todd, R. D., Schindler, M. K., Gross, M. M., Brophy, S. L., et al. (2003). Validation of a brief quantitative measure of autistic traits: Comparison of the Social Responsiveness Scale with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33(4), 427–433. doi:10.1023/A:1025014929212.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. N., & Gruber, C. P. (2012). Social responsiveness scale, Second Edition (SRS-2). Torrance, CA: Western Psychological Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. N., Gruber, C. P., Davis, S., Hayes, S., Passanante, N., & Przybeck, T. (2004). The factor structure of autistic traits. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(4), 719–726. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00266.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. N., LaVesser, P. D., Zhang, Y., Abbacchi, A. M., Gray, T., & Todd, R. D. (2007). Rapid quantitative assessment of autistic social impairment by classroom teachers. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46(12), 1668–1676. doi:10.1097/chi.0b013e318157cb23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. N., Przybeck, T., Friesen, D., & Todd, R. D. (2000). Reciprocal social behavior in children with and without pervasive developmental disorders. Journal Of Developmental And Behavioral Pediatrics: JDBP, 21(1), 2–11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, C. D. (2007). Differential ability scales (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, G., D’Ardia, C., Valente, D., Vecchio, I. D., Fabrizi, A., & Bernabei, P. (2003). Vineland adaptive behavior profiles in children with autism and moderate to severe developmental delay. Autism, 7, 269–287. doi:10.1177/1362361303007003004.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Floyd, F. J., & Widaman, K. F. (1995). Factor analysis in the development and refinement of clincial assessment instruments. Psychological Assessment, 7, 286–299. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glorfeld, L. W. (1995). An improvement on Horn’s parallel analysis methodlogy for selecting the correct number of factors to retain. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55,-393. doi:10.1177/001316449505500302

  • Guttman, L. (1954). Some necessary conditions for common factor analysis. Psychometrika, 19, 149–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammill, D. D., Pearson, N. A., & Weiderholt, J. L. (2009). Comprehensive test of nonverbal intelligence (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

  • Horn, J. L. (1965). A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika, 30, 179–185. doi:10.1007/BF02289447.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 141–151. doi:10.1177/001316446002000116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, H. F. (1961). A note on Guttman’s lower bound for the number of common factors. British Journal of Psychology, 14, 1–2. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8317.1961.tb00061.x.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Couteur, A., Lord, C., & Rutter, M. (2003). The autism diagnostic interview: Revised (ADI-R). Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., & Corsello, C. (2005). Diagnostic instruments in autistic spectrum disorders. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders: Vol. 2. Assessment, interventions, and policy (3rd ed., pp. 730–771). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

  • Lord, C., Rutter, M. L., DiLavore, P. C., & Risi, S. (2012). Autism diagnostic observation schedule – Second edition (WPS ed.). Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCallum, R. C., Widaman, K. F., Zhang, S., & Hong, S. (1999). Sample size in factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 4(1), 84–99. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.4.1.84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norris, M., & Lecavalier, L. (2010). Screening accuracy of level 2 autism spectrum disorder rating scales: A review of selected instruments. Autism, 14(4), 263–284. doi:10.1177/1362361309348071.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pedhauzer, E. J., & Schmelkin, L. P. (1991). Measurement, design and analysis: An integrated approach. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, A., Flanagan, H. E., Geier, J. D., & Freeman, N. L. (2009). Brief report: The Vineland adaptive behavior scales in young children with autism spectrum disorders at different cognitive levels. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 1066–1078. doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0704-9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roid, G. H. (2003). Stanford-Binet intelligence scales (5th ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schanding, G. T., Nowell, K. P., & Goin-Kochel, R. P. (2012). Utility of the social communication questionnaire-current and social responsiveness scale as teacher-report screening tools for autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 1705–1716. doi:10.1007/s10803-011-1412-9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wechsler, D. (2002). Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence (3rd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wechsler, D. (2003). Wechsler intelligence scale for children (4th ed.). San Antonio, TX: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigham, S., McConachie, H., Tandos, J., & Le Couteur, A. S. (2012). The reliability and validity of the Social Responsiveness Scale in a UK general child population. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 33, 944–950. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.12.017.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ysseldyke, J. E., & Salvia, J. (2004). Assessment in special and inclusive education (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

  • Zumbo, B. D., Gadermann, A. M., & Zeisser, C. (2007). Ordinal versions of coefficients alpha and theta for Likert rating scales. Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods, 6, 21–29.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author Contributions

AN conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, participated in data analysis and interpretation and drafted the manuscript; CL participated in the study’s design and coordination, drafted the manuscript and provided critical revisions of the article; MV conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, participated in data collection, participated in data analysis and interpretation and provided critical revisions of the article; MT coordinated data collection and participated in its design and coordination; JT coordinated data collection; ED participated in data analysis and interpretation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Summit Center, 150 Stahl Road, Getzville, NY, 14068, USA

    Andrew T. Nelson & Jennifer A. Toomey

  2. Institute for Autism Research, Canisius College, 2001 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14208, USA

    Christopher Lopata & Marcus L. Thomeer

  3. Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Michigan State University, 220 Trowbridge Rd, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Martin A. Volker

  4. Toronto, Canada

    Elissa Dua

Authors
  1. Andrew T. Nelson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christopher Lopata
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Martin A. Volker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marcus L. Thomeer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jennifer A. Toomey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Elissa Dua
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew T. Nelson.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declares that they have no Conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

This research was prepared from the doctoral dissertation of Andrew T. Nelson. Special thanks to those members of the dissertation committee listed above, as well as Gloria K. Lee, Ph.D.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nelson, A.T., Lopata, C., Volker, M.A. et al. Exploratory Factor Analysis of SRS-2 Teacher Ratings for Youth with ASD. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 2905–2915 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2822-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2822-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation