Wilkinson Ellen, Farmer Cristan, Kleiman Evan, Bal Vanessa H
Rutgers University, USA.
National Institutes of Health, USA.
Autism. 2024 Mar;28(3):616-626. doi: 10.1177/13623613231179288. Epub 2023 Jun 10.
Adaptive behavior is a broad set of skills needed to function in everyday life. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-3) is commonly used to measure adaptive behavior. It divides adaptive behavior into three domains, Communication, Daily Living Skills, and Socialization, each of which are split into subdomains. Analyses of this three-part structure of the first version of VABS used the instrument as an interview, but now it is done as a questionnaire as well. The structure has not been well supported in samples of autistic people, who often have different strengths and challenges in adaptive behavior compared with non-autistic people. Because adaptive behavior is an important concept in autism research and online-administered questionnaires are increasingly common, it is important to ensure the structure of the VABS-3 Comprehensive Parent/Caregiver Form (VABS-3:CPCF; a questionnaire) works well for autistic individuals across a range of abilities. This study aimed to investigate whether VABS-3:CPCF measures adaptive behavior similarly in verbal and minimally verbal autistic people. However, the data didn't fit the structure in the first step of the analysis, so this could not be investigated. The next analyses also found the three-domain structure didn't fit in different age and language groups. In addition, the data didn't fit a structure combining all the domains into 1 (unidimensional). These results suggest that neither the three-factor or unidimensional structure fit the VABS-3:CPCF, cautioning against interpretation of domain or overall adaptive behavior composite scores in autistic individuals and further encouraging careful consideration of administration format.
适应性行为是日常生活中发挥功能所需的一系列广泛技能。文兰适应性行为量表（VABS - 3）通常用于测量适应性行为。它将适应性行为分为三个领域：沟通、日常生活技能和社交化，每个领域又进一步细分为子领域。对VABS第一版的这三部分结构进行分析时，该工具是作为访谈使用的，但现在也可以作为问卷使用。在自闭症患者样本中，这种结构并未得到充分支持，与非自闭症患者相比，他们在适应性行为方面往往有不同的优势和挑战。由于适应性行为是自闭症研究中的一个重要概念，且在线问卷管理越来越普遍，因此确保VABS - 3综合家长/照顾者表格（VABS - 3:CPCF；一种问卷）的结构对不同能力的自闭症个体都适用非常重要。本研究旨在调查VABS - 3:CPCF在语言能力正常和语言能力极低的自闭症患者中测量适应性行为的方式是否相似。然而，在分析的第一步数据就不符合该结构，因此无法进行此项调查。后续分析还发现，三领域结构在不同年龄和语言组中均不适用。此外，数据也不符合将所有领域合并为一个（单维）的结构。这些结果表明，三因素结构或单维结构均不适合VABS - 3:CPCF，这提醒我们不要对自闭症个体的领域或总体适应性行为综合得分进行解读，并进一步鼓励仔细考虑施测形式。
