The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 2001 31(1):5–17. Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Skinner R, Martin J, Clubley E.If you score low on the AQ and you may still think that you present some traits, book a complimentary consultation on our website to speak with a knowledgeable clinician. Notably, not every autistic person necessarily scores above the defined threshold on each test. Inter-rater reliability (consistency of scores when two different clinicians provide the test to the same person) was also found to be good.ĭo note that no single test is conclusive and should not be solely used for diagnostic purposes.78), suggesting that A is a reliable test. Test-retest Reliability (consistency of scores when one re-takes the same test) has been found to be good (Cronbach’s α varying from.Any score below 32 may indicate no traits of Autism, while scores above 32 may indicated moderate to severe traits of Autism. The cut-off score for AQ is a score of 32, which has captured 80% pf those diagnosed with Autism. The AQ correctly scores autistics (both male and female) higher than neurotypical population. The AQ has been used to screen clinical samples (Woodbury-Smith et al. 2005), examine social cognition (Baron-Cohen et al. 2001), spontaneous facial mimicry in women who may be autistic (Hermans et al. 2009), gaze preference to social and non-social stimuli (Bayliss and Tipper 2005), and auditory speech perception (Stewart and Ota 2008). Men with autism have an average score of 35.1 (SD = 6.9), while the mean score for women with autism is 38.1 (SD = 4.4).Among the variety of screening tools developed to quantify autistic traits, the Autism-Spectrum Quotient has been the most commonly used. This analysis suggest the optimal cutoff score is 29+.ĭata for gender related norms are provided for the sample of adults with autism and the community sample (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001). Subsequent analysis by Broadbent and colleagues (2013) found that a cutoff score of 29+ had a 14.4% false negative rate, and a less than 1% false positive rate.

Internal consistency was moderate to high.Ī cutoff score of 32+ was suggested in the original Baron-Cohen and colleagues (2001) article, and was found to distinguish the Autism Sample from the control Community Sample. Psychometric analysis indicated adequate inter-rater and test-retest reliability. They administered the scale to adults with DSM-IV classified Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) (Autism sample, N = 58) and to a control sample of randomly selected individuals from the community (N = 174). The AQ was developed by Baron-Cohen and colleagues (2001). The following items are summed to obtain scores for each of the subscales: For example, high scores on social skills indicates more social skills deficits, and high scores on attention to detail indicates an atypical focus on details. Percentiles compared to the Autism Sample compares the respondent’s score to people who have been diagnosed with Autism, where a percentile of 50 indicates typical scores for someone with Autism.įor men, a total score of 29 corresponds to a percentile compared to the male autism sample of 18.9 and a percentile of 95 compared to the male community sample.įor women, a total score of 29 corresponds to a percentile compared to the female autism sample of 1.9 and a percentile of 99.1 compared to the female community sample.įive subscales are presented, with higher scores on each subscale indicate more neurodivergence in each area. The total score and subscale scores are also represented as percentiles for comparison to gender specific norms for the Autism Sample and the Community Sample (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001). Using the cut-off score of 29 has a false positive rate of 1%, however will fail to identify 14.4% of people who actually do meet the diagnostic criteria for DSM-5 defined Autism Spectrum Disorder. Higher scores indicate responses that are more consistent with autism traits.Ī total score of 29 or more is indicative of clinically significant autism traits (Broadbent, et al., 2013). Items are summed to obtain an overall total score and scores for each of the five subscales.

Autism spectrum test score