Participation questionnaire for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder: content validation and item development

Abstract

Occupational therapists need to comprehensively assess the participation of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions. The Participation Questionnaire for Preschoolers measures disability-specific participation in children with ASD. This tool targets a narrow age range of 48–72 months and needs to be adequately assessed for content validity. Therefore, this study aims to expand the target age range of the Participation Questionnaire for Preschoolers to 36–83 months, validate its content, and develop its items. A qualitative research-based item development study was conducted. Using the prototype items, interviews were conducted with 8 experts in ASD child support and participation research and 11 caregivers of children with ASD. Interviews were transcribed and subjected to content analysis. The number of questions was reduced (51 vs. 36). Two of the eight sub-domains were removed to clarify the conceptual difference between activity and participation. Moreover, the items’ order was changed to explain the subject and improve comprehensibility. The developed Participation Questionnaire for Preschoolers comprised disability-specific items. The application of a reflective model may be useful for intervention research. In the future, there will be a need for scale development and assessment of measurement properties such as structural validity.