Development and Psychometric Examination of a New Social Competence Outcome Measure for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Observational Social Competence Assessment.

Current assessments of social competence for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are mostly designed for screening or diagnosis, not for measuring outcomes. This study aimed to develop a professional-administrated outcome measure, the Observational Social Competence Assessment (OSCA), and e...

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Published in:Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders Vol. 55; no. 11; pp. 3838 - 3851
Main Authors: Liu, Ming-Hsuan, Chiang, Fu-Mei, Chen, Cheng-Te, Yang, Hsiu-Ching, Chen, Kuan-Lin
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Springer Nature Nov2025
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Nov2025
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        atl: Development and Psychometric Examination of a New Social Competence Outcome Measure for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Observational Social Competence Assessment.
      aug:
        au:
          Liu, Ming-Hsuan
          Chiang, Fu-Mei
          Chen, Cheng-Te
          Yang, Hsiu-Ching
          Chen, Kuan-Lin
        affil: https://ror.org/01b8kcc49 Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan
      sug:
        subj:
          Autism Spectrum Disorder
          Social Behavior Evaluation
          Social Skills Evaluation
          Child Behavior
          Instrument Construction
          Instrument Validation
          Clinical Assessment Tools
          Reliability and Validity Evaluation
          Psychometrics
          Human
          Child, Preschool
          Child
          Male
          Female
          Funding Source
          Taiwan
          Validation Studies
          Scales
          Descriptive Statistics
          Internal Consistency
          Coefficient alpha
          Test-Retest Reliability
          Intraclass Correlation Coefficient
          Content Validity
          Construct Validity
          Pearson's Correlation Coefficient
          Paired T-Tests
          Social Adjustment
          Criterion-Related Validity
          Child, Preschool: 2-5 years
          Child: 6-12 years
          Male
          Female
      ab: Current assessments of social competence for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are mostly designed for screening or diagnosis, not for measuring outcomes. This study aimed to develop a professional-administrated outcome measure, the Observational Social Competence Assessment (OSCA), and examine its psychometric properties. The OSCA was constructed based on a multidimensional view of social competence (i.e., social skill elements, social reciprocity, and social adjustment). For psychometric evaluation, 89 children with ASD between 3 and 12 years (mean = 70.69 months, SD = 15.31) were assessed with the OSCA and with assessments of ASD symptoms, verbal comprehension ability, and adaptive function. The results show that the OSCA has good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.820–0.954), test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients [ICC] = 0.917–0.960), and inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.905–0.974). The OSCA also has good convergent (r = 0.508–0.703, p < 0.01) and divergent validity (r = 0.105, p = 0.496), as well as good responsiveness to changes in the social adjustment dimension (Cohen's d = 1.26 and standardized response mean [SRM] = 1.92). Conclusively, these results show that the OSCA is sufficiently reliable, valid and responsive to be applied as an outcome measure of social competence in children with ASD.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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