Clinical assessment of ASD in adults using self- and other-report: Psychometric properties and validity of the Adult Social Behavior Questionnaire (ASBQ)

•We developed the 44-item Adult Social Behavior Questionnaire (ASBQ).•The ASBQ is a multidimensional Autism Spectrum Disorder Questionnaire.•The ASBQ has both a self report version and a version to be completed by someone close.•Reliability estimates and correlations between self- and other-ratings were good.•Score profiles differentiated ASD patients from clinical and non-clinical groups.

The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Adult Social Behavior Questionnaire (ASBQ), a multidimensional Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) questionnaire that contains both a self report version and a version to be completed by someone close. Psychometric qualities, convergence between self report and other report ratings, and scores in a group diagnosed with ASD and multiple comparison groups were examined.Principal Component Analyses yielded a structure with six dimensions (reduced contact, reduced empathy, reduced interpersonal insight, violation of social conventions, insistence on sameness, and sensory stimulation/motor stereotypies) for both self- and other-report versions. Reliability estimates and correlations between self- and other-ratings were good and the score profile on the 44-item ASBQ differentiated a group with ASD from a non-clinical group and patients with depression, schizophrenia and ADHD.We conclude that the ASBQ is a short and easy to apply questionnaire that captures the heterogeneous nature of ASD. It yields a score profile among six ASD problem domains both from the perspective of the patient and from a significant other.