The Ritvo Autism and Asperger Diagnostic Scale-14 (RAADS-14) Screen (Eriksson et al., 2013) is a 14-item self-report questionnaire designed to distinguish autism from psychiatric conditions like attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety. The questionnaire is an abridged version of the 80-item RAADS-R (Ritvo et al., 2011). In a validation study, autistic adults achieved a median score of 32 points on the RAADS-14 Screen, compared with a median score of 3 points for control participants (Eriksson et al., 2013). A score of 14 points on the RAADS-14 Screen demonstrated sensitivity of approximately 97% for autism (Eriksson et al., 2013). Therefore, potential participants who scored at least 14 points on the RAADS-14 Screen were considered eligible for the proposed study, even if they did not report having been diagnosed with autism by a professional.
A systematic review of screening and diagnostic tools for autism reported that the RAADS-14 Screen was among only four screening tools that had satisfactory psychometric properties (Baghdadli et al., 2017). The RAADS-14 Screen may also avoid gender biases that have been suggested for items on the Autism Quotient (AQ; Murray et al., 2017; Murray et al., 2019), making it a more appropriate screener for the present study. In addition to gender-related concerns about the AQ, a study of 476 adults who had been referred to an autism diagnostic service reported high rates of false negatives and false positives with the measure (Ashwood et al., 2016).
Original source: Coburn, K.L. (2021). Spoken narratives by autistic adults of under-represented genders.
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Baghdadli, A., Russet, F., & Mottron, L. (2017). Measurement properties of screening and diagnostic tools for autism spectrum adults of mean normal intelligence: A systematic review. European Psychiatry, 44, 104-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.04.009
Eriksson, J. M., Anderson, L. M. J., & Bejerot, S. (2013). RAADS-14 screen: Validity of a screening tool for autism spectrum disorder in an adult psychiatric population. Molecular Autism, 4(49). http://www.molecularautism.com/content/4/1/49
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Murray, A. L., Booth, T., Auyeung, B., McKenzie, K., & Kuenssberg, R. (2019). Investigating sex bias in the AQ-10: A replication study. Assessment, 26(8), 1474-1479. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191117733548
Ritvo, R. A., Ritvo, E. R., Guthrie, D., Ritvo, M. J., Hufnagel, D. H., McMahon, W., Tonge, B., Mataix-Cols, D., Jassi, A., Attwood, T., & Eloff, J. (2011). The Ritvo autism Asperger diagnostic scale—revised (RAADS-R): A scale to assist the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in adults: An international validation study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 589-596.