Linguistic adaptation and psychometric validation of the Tamil self-report broad autism phenotype questionnaire for use in clinical and community context
M. L. Charan, V. Sivakumar, Sagayaraj Kanagaraj, Janani Jagannarayanan, Krishan Kumar, S. K. AnandhalakshmiAbstract
Background:
The Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) is a widely used tool to assess Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) traits and has been validated in multiple languages, including Spanish, German, Chinese, Swedish, and Indian languages such as Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam. However, previous translations primarily focused on relatives of individuals with autism, limiting knowledge about its applicability in the general population.
Aim:
This study aimed to translate the BAPQ into Tamil (BAPQ-T) and validate it for use in the general population and among relatives of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Materials and Methods:
In this cross-sectional prospective study, the original BAPQ was translated into Tamil with careful attention to linguistic and cultural adaptation. Psychometric validation was conducted using samples from the general population and relatives of individuals with ASD. Internal consistency, test–retest reliability, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were employed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the translated tool.
Results:
The BAPQ-T demonstrated good internal consistency (α =0.833,
Conclusion:
The BAPQ-T demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. Although the CFA supported a reduced-item version, the refined tool remains psychometrically robust for assessing BAP traits in both community and clinical settings. However, the 26-item version is preliminary and requires further validation in larger, more diverse samples in future studies due to sample size constraints.