"What does 'often' even mean?" Revising and validating the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory in partnership with...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychometrics
• Neurodiversity Studies

Background:

• The Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory (CATI) was revised collaboratively with autistic individuals.
• The revision aimed to enhance accessibility, reduce stigma, and improve the capture of diverse autistic experiences, particularly in females.
• Previous versions of the CATI were known for capturing female autistic traits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To revise the CATI into the CATI-R, ensuring it reflects authentic autistic experiences.
• To provide preliminary evidence for the validity and reliability of the CATI-R as a self-report measure.
• To develop guidelines for creating non-stigmatizing and accessible self-report inventories for neurodivergent traits.

Main Methods:

• The CATI-R was developed with input from 22 individuals from autism and autistic communities.
• Items were reworded for clarity and to reduce stigma, and expanded to include diverse autistic experiences.
• The CATI-R was validated in a large sample (n=1439) including autistic and non-autistic participants.

Main Results:

• Confirmatory factor analysis supported the six-subscale structure of the CATI-R (RMSEA=.04, SRMR=.03, CFI=.95, TLI=.94).
• Strong positive correlations were found between all CATI-R subscales (rs > .56, ps < .001).
• Convergent validity was confirmed through significant correlations with the AQ (rho=.86) and BAPQ (rho=.82). Measurement invariance analysis indicated scores are comparable across genders.

Conclusions:

• The CATI-R is a validated revision of the CATI, demonstrating good psychometric properties.
• The revised inventory is more sensitive, accessible, and less stigmatizing, resonating with autistic experiences.
• The study provides valuable guidelines for developing future self-report measures for neurodivergent traits.