Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the internal construct validity of the DSM-IV as a conceptual model for characterizing behavioral syndromes in children with ASD. Parent and teachers completed the Child Symptom Inventory-4, a DSM-IV-referenced rating scale, for 6-to-12 year old clinic referrals with an ASD (N = 498). Ratings were submitted to confirmatory factor analysis and models were assessed for fit. Results were also compared to those obtained for a sample of non-ASD psychiatric outpatient school-age children. Fit indices ranged from acceptable to good for the ASD samples and compared well to those obtained in typically developing children. Findings lend support to the notion that DSM-IV syndromes may be an appropriate conceptual model for characterizing psychopathology in ASD.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrahams, B. S., & Geschwind, D. H. (2008). Advances in autism genetics: On the threshold of a new neurobiology. Nature Reviews. Genetics, 9, 341–355. doi:10.1038/nrg2346.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (4th ed.), Text Revised (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Angold, A., Costello, E. J., & Erklani, A. (1999). Comorbidity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40, 57–87. doi:10.1017/S0021963098003448.
Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen & J. Scott Lang (Eds.), Testing structural models (pp. 136–162). Newbury park, CA: Sage Publications.
Cantwell, D. P. (1996). Classification of child and adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 37, 3–12. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01377.x.
DeBruin, E. I., Ferdinand, R. F., Meester, S., de Nijs, F. A., & Verheij, F. (2007). High rates psychiatric co-morbidity in PDD-NOS. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 877–886. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0215-x.
Einfeld, S. L., & Aman, M. G. (1995). Issues in the taxonomy of psychopathology in children and adolescents with mental retardation. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 25, 143–167. doi:10.1007/BF02178501.
Fombonne, E. (2005). Epidemiology of autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66(Suppl. 10), 3–8.
Gadow, K. D., DeVincent, C. J., & Drabick, D. A. G. Oppositional defiant disorder as a clinical phenotype in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, in press.
Gadow, K. D., DeVincent, C. J., & Pomeroy, J. (2006). ADHD symptom subtypes in children with pervasive developmental disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 271–283. doi:10.1007/s10803-005-0060-3.
Gadow, K. D., DeVincent, C. J., Pomeroy, J., & Azizian, A. (2004a). Psychiatric symptoms in preschool children with PDD and clinic and comparison samples. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 379–393. doi:10.1023/B:JADD.0000037415.21458.93.
Gadow, K. D., DeVincent, C. J., Pomeroy, J., & Azizian, A. (2005). Comparison of DSM-IV symptoms in elementary school-aged children with PDD versus clinic and community samples. Autism, 9, 392–415.
Gadow, K. D., DeVincent, C., & Schneider, J. (in press). Predictors of psychiatric syndromes in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, doi:10.1007/s10803-008-0556-8.
Gadow, K. D., Drabick, D. A. G., Loney, J., Sprafkin, J., Salisbury, H., Azizian, A., et al. (2004b). Comparison of ADHD symptom subtypes as source-specific syndromes. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 45, 1135–1149. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00306.x.
Gadow, K. D., Roohi, J., DeVincent, C. J., & Hatchwell, E. (in press). Association of ADHD, tics, and anxiety with dopamine transporter (DAT1) genotype in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, doi:10.1111/f.1469-7610.2008.01949.x.
Gadow, K. D., & Sprafkin, J. (2002). Child Symptom Inventory-4 Screening and Norms Manual. Stony Brook, NY: Checkmate Plus.
Gadow, K. D., & Sprafkin, J. (2007). The Symptom Inventories: An annotated bibliography [On-line]. Available: www.checkmateplus.com
Gibbons, R. D., & Hedeker, D. R. (1992). Full-information item bi-factor analysis. Psychometrika, 57, 423–436. doi:10.1007/BF02295430.
Hartman, C., Hox, J., Mellenbergh, G. J., Boyle, M. H., Offord, D. R., et al. (2001). DSM-IV internal construct validity: when a taxonomy meets data. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42, 817–826. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00778.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four factor index of social status. Department of Sociology, Yale University: New Haven, CT.
Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. (2004). LISREL (Version 8.71). Chicago, IL: Scientific Software International.
Klin, A., Lang, J., Cicchetti, D. V., & Volkmar, F. R. (2000). Brief report: Interrater reliability of clinical diagnoses and DSM-IV criteria for autistic disorder: Results of the DSM-IV Autism Field Trial. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 163–167. doi:10.1023/A:1005415823867.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Guilford Press.
Lecavalier, L. (2006). Behavior and emotional problems in young people with pervasive developmental disorders: Relative prevalence, effects of subject characteristics, and empirical classification. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 1101–1114. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0147-5.
Lecavalier, L., & Gadow, K. (2008). Pharmacology effects and side effects. In. J. L. Matson (Ed.). Clinical Assessment and Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders (pp. 221–263). Elsevier Science.
Lecavalier, L., Leone, S., & Wiltz, J. (2006). The impact of behaviour problems on caregiver stress in young people with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 50, 172–183. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00732.x.
Leyfer, O. T., Folstein, S. E., Bacalman, S., Davis, N. O., Dinh, E., Morgan, J., et al. (2006). Comorbid psychiatric disorders in children with autism: Interview development and rates of disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 849–861. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0123-0.
Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E. H., Jr, Leventhal, B. L., DiLavore, P. C., et al. (2000). The autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic: A standard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 205–223. doi:10.1023/A:1005592401947.
Offord, D. R., Boyle, M. H., Racine, Y., Szatmari, P., Fleming, J. E., Sanford, M., et al. (1996). Integrating assessment data from multiple informants. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 1078–1085. doi:10.1097/00004583-199608000-00019.
Posey, D. J., Aman, M. G., McCracken, J. T., Scahill, L., Tierney, E., Arnold, L. E., et al. (2007). Positive effects of methylphenidate on inattention and hyperactivity in pervasive developmental disorders: An analysis of secondary measures. Biological Psychiatry, 61, 538–544. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.09.028.
Robins, E., & Guze, S. B. (1970). Establishment of diagnostic validity in psychiatric illness: Its application to schizophrenia. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 983–987.
Roohi, J., DeVincent, C. J., Hatchwell, E., & Gadow, K. D. (in press). Association of a monoamine oxidase—A gene promoter polymorphism with ADHD and anxiety in boys with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi:10.1007/s10803-008-0600-8.
Sprafkin, J., Volpe, R. J., Gadow, K. D., Nolan, E. E., & Kelly, K. (2002). A DSM-IV-referenced screening instrument for preschool children: The Early Childhood Inventory-4. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41, 604–612. doi:10.1097/00004583-200205000-00018.
Skuse, D. H. (2007). Rethinking the nature of genetic vulnerability to autism spectrum disorders. Trends in Genetics, 23, 387–395. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2007.06.003.
Szatmari, P., Maziade, M., Zwaigenbaum, L., Merette, C., Roy, M. -A., Joober, R., et al. (2007). Informative phenotypes for genetic studies of psychiatric disorders. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B, 144B, 581–588. doi:10.1002/ajmg.b.30426.
Sverd, J. (2003). Psychiatric disorders in individuals with pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 9, 111–127. doi:10.1097/00131746-200303000-00003.
Tonge, B. J., & Einfeld, S. L. (2003). Psychopathology and intellectual disability: The Australian child to adult longitudinal study. In L. M. Glidden (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation (Vol. 26, pp. 61–91). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Weisbrot, D. M., Gadow, K. D., DeVincent, C. J., & Pomeroy, J. (2005). The presentation of anxiety in children with pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 15, 477–496. doi:10.1089/cap. 2005.15.477.
Wirth, R. J., & Edwards, M. C. (2007). Item factor analysis: Current approaches and future directions. Psychological Methods, 12, 58–79. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.12.1.58.
Witwer, A. N., & Lecavalier, L. (2005). Treatment incidence and patterns in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 15, 671–681. doi:10.1089/cap. 2005.15.671.
Yu, C. Y. (2002). Evaluating cutoff criteria of model fit indices for latent variable models with binary and continuous outcomes. University of California, Los Angeles: Doctoral dissertation.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported, in part, by a grant from the Matt and Debra Cody Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lecavalier, L., Gadow, K.D., DeVincent, C.J. et al. Validation of DSM-IV Model of Psychiatric Syndromes in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 39, 278–289 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-008-0622-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-008-0622-2