“What does ‘often’ even mean?” Revising and validating the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory in partnership with autistic people

Background: In this study, we revised the comprehensive autistic trait inventory (CATI)—a self-report inventory of autistic traits, in collaboration with autistic people and provided preliminary evidence for its validity as a self-report measure of autistic traits in the general population. An established strength of the CATI is its ability to capture female autistic traits. Our project aimed to extend this further, to increase the inventory’s accessibility, and to minimise stigma induced by deficit-based representations of autistic experience. 

Methods: Together with 22 individuals from the autism and autistic communities, we created the Revised Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory (CATI-R). Revisions included rewording items to increase clarity or reduce stigma and expanding items to capture diverse autistic experiences. We also present a series of guidelines for developing self-report inventories of subclinical neurodivergent traits. We validated the CATI-R within a large sample (n = 1439), comprising people with a self-reported autism diagnosis (n = 331), people who self-identified as autistic (n = 44), and non-autistic participants (n = 1046). 

Results: We successfully validated a revision of the CATI. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the six-subscale structure (two-factor bifactors model: Chi-squared = 2705.73, p <.001, RMSEA =.04, SRMR =.03, CFI =.95, TLI =.94). Spearman’s rank correlations showed positive relationships between all subscales (all rs >.56, ps <.001). Convergent validity was demonstrated by significant correlations between the CATI-R and two contemporary inventories of autistic traits: the AQ (rho =.86, p <.01) and BAPQ (rho =.82, p <.01). Finally, a measurement invariance analysis indicated that total-scale scores can be compared across genders. 

Limitations: Our study presents only initial evidence for the validity of the CATI-R that should be enriched with further analyses and types of data, including a larger number of participants who do not identify as male or female. 

Conclusions: This project provides a revised trait inventory that resonates with actual autistic experience, along with guidelines for creating self-report measures that are sensitive, accessible, and non-stigmatising.