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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1447080

Differential Item Functioning in the Autism Behavior Checklist in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Based on A Machine Learning Approach

Provisionally accepted
Kanglong Peng Kanglong Peng 1*Meng Chen Meng Chen 2Libing Zhou Libing Zhou 2Xiaofang Weng Xiaofang Weng 2
  • 1 Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, China
  • 2 Luohu District Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Aim: Our study utilized the Rasch Analysis to examine the psychometric properties of the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Methods: A total of 3319 children (44.77±23.52 months) were included. Rasch Model (RM) was utilized to test the reliability and validity of the ABC. The GPCMlasso Model was used to test the differential item functioning (DIF).Result: The response pattern of this sample showed acceptable fitness to RM. The analysis supported the unidimensionality assumption of the ABC. Disordered category functions and DIF were found in all items in the ABC. The participants responded to ABC item differently depending not only on autistic traits but also age groups, gender, and symptom classifications.The Rasch analysis produces reliable evidence to support that the ABC can precisely depict the clinical ASD symptoms. Difference in population characteristics may cause unnecessary assessment bias and lead to overestimated or underestimated symptom severity. Hence, special consideration for population characteristics is needed in making ASD diagnosis.

    Keywords: abc, Rasch model, Differential Item Functioning, ASD, machine learning

    Received: 11 Jun 2024; Accepted: 20 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Peng, Chen, Zhou and Weng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kanglong Peng, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.