Temperament Similarities and Differences: A Comparison of Factor Structures from the Behavioral Style Questionnaire in Children with and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Brian Barger, Eric J Moody, Caroline Ledbetter and 3 others
PMID 30604350WHAT IT FOUND
Parent temperament ratings did not cleanly match the Behavioral Style Questionnaire's original subscales in children with autism or typical children.
Some traits grouped similarly, but autism showed an extra negative social interaction pattern, and several subscales did not score consistently.
Key findings
01Separate analyses found 10 factors in children with autism spectrum disorder and 9 in population comparison children, with 9 similar factors and a unique autism factor called Negative Social Interactions.
02The original 9-factor questionnaire structure fit poorly, and persistence, rhythmicity, and threshold scales had unsatisfactory scoring consistency.
03On scales built from items shared by both groups, children with autism scored higher on Maladaptive, Social Inattention, and Crying and lower on Environmental Sensitivity, Quiet Persistence, Social Approach, Rhythmicity, and Food Openness.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study did not establish that the same temperament factors mean the same thing in children with autism and comparison children. It was designed to explore questionnaire properties in research settings, not to test clinical use. Many questionnaire items did not load strongly, and most of the response pattern was left unexplained. The groups differed in sex, verbal status, race, maternal education, and developmental delay, so factor score differences may not reflect temperament alone.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use Behavioral Style Questionnaire subscale scores as clear measures of a child's traits. The original subscale structure fit poorly, and several scales did not score consistently. The study did not show that temperament differences cause or diagnose autism.