Traits Contributing to the Autistic Spectrum

Colin D Steer, Jean Golding and Patrick F Bolton

PLOS ONE, 2010, vol. 5, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Background: It is increasingly recognised that traits associated with autism reflect a spectrum with no clear boundary between typical and atypical behaviour. Dimensional traits are needed to investigate the broader autism phenotype. Methods and Principal Findings: Ninety-three individual measures reflecting components of social, communication and repetitive behaviours characterising autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) were identified between the ages of 6 months and 9 years from the ALSPAC database. Using missing value imputation, data for 13,138 children were analysed. Factor analysis suggested the existence of 7 factors explaining 85% of the variance. The factors were labelled: verbal ability, language acquisition, social understanding, semantic-pragmatic skills, repetitive-stereotyped behaviour, articulation and social inhibition. Four factors (1, 3, 5 and 7) were specific to ASD being more strongly associated with this phenotype than other co-morbid conditions while other factors were more associated with learning difficulties and specific language impairment. Nevertheless, all 7 factors contributed independently to the explanation of ASD (p

Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0012633

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012633

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