Psychological and Functional Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychiatric, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 67
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The current state of autism assessment is complicated and multi-factored. Recently, autism awareness has increased partly due to the rise in social media influencers; information from these sources is unreliable but has evidenced its impact in referral presentations. Relatedly, more people are presenting for autism diagnoses than in the past. The (limited) available evidence suggests a wide range of variability in usage rates of gold-standard measures, such as the ADOS-2, DISCO, or ADI-R for autism diagnosis. The lack of use of these measures would be less concerning if there was strong evidence for the criterion validity of other frequently utilized measures. However, compelling evidence regarding the validity of autism questionnaires outside of the standardization sample is particularly lacking. Another potential area for investigation relates to the validity of research-based measures that focus on social understanding. Many have shown promise for the differentiation of those with/without autism. In addition, the need for more information on autism in females is not new, and/but non-binary and transgender persons are also under-researched regarding factors to consider in autism assessment. The ability of persons with autism (regardless of gender) to use rules for social interaction that work in highly structured situations with explicit information being provided, as is the case in some social tasks, is also not a new phenomenon. There is a need for research regarding functional abilities outside of the assessment environment and how these are related to autism presentations.
This Special Issue calls for empirical research, comprehensive literature reviews, or meta-analyses. The focus should on the methods and tests used in autism diagnosis. Relevant topics would include the current state of diagnostic practices, how social media has impacted the referrals/assessment of autism, how assessment can be improved to capture autism more comprehensively in the assessment setting and in the real world, such as regarding specific behaviors, psychological factors, or cognitive presentations directly relevant to diagnosis (including under-researched populations), or psychometric evaluations of current or newly developed tests, including questionnaires (no translations). Where applicable, methodology should include appropriate (i.e., gold-standard) diagnostic measures; this methodology is particularly relevant for criterion validity studies.
Abstract Deadline: 1 May 2025
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 15 May 2025
Dr. Amy Camodeca
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- autism
- assessment
- validity
- reliability
- functional
- diagnostic practices
- diagnostic procedures
- psychometrics
- gold-standard measures
- social media
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