Design and content validation of AUTIVA: an ecobiopsychosocial instrument for childhood autism

There are no community-based surveys for the development or assessment of public policies with an ecobiopsychosocial approach for autistic children. This article reports the development of an instrument assessing characteristics of Chilean autistic children, in order to understand how autism manifests in different environments. This study consisted of two stages: Firstly, after a comprehensive literature review, an instrument was designed by health and education professionals alongside autistic individuals and primary caregivers. Secondly, content validation was performed using the Content Validity Index, through the calculation of the Lawshe Content Validity Ratio. Sixty questions were validated, distributed across six subscales: "General Health Profile" obtained a Content Validity of 0.94; The subscales "Sex and Gender," "Autism Diagnosis and Concomitant Pathologies," "Family Income and the Impact of Autism on Socioeconomic Status," "Diet of the Autistic Person," and "Therapies and Schooling" obtained Content Validity Indexes of 0.89; 0.98; 1.0; 0.96; and 1.0, respectively. The Content Validity Index for the full instrument was 0.96. The survey presented demonstrated initial evidence of content validity and may serve as a basis for future psychometric validation. It allows for the assessment of this population in various life aspects, and offers great potential for creating public care policies regarding this community. As this study represents an initial content validation phase, future research should assess construct validity, criterion-related validity, reliability, and cross-cultural applicability.