The Reliability of the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 in an Iranian Typically Developing Group of Children

The Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2) is a well-known screening instrument to assess autistic spectrum symptoms quantitatively. This study assessed the different types of reliability of the Farsi translation of the scale.

This scale was translated into Farsi and back translated considering all aspects of methodology in translation. Then, based on stratified sampling, 533 7-11-year-old students were randomly selected from the mainstream schools located in the central parts of Tehran, the capital of Iran. For all the students, SRS-2 was completed by both the parents and teachers. To check retest reliability, the test was administered again for 15% of the total participants after a 2-4 week-period. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, split-half” and Gottman” methods, and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were used.

The mean total raw score was 48.47 (±23.63) and 53.17 (±27.33) in the sequence of the parents and teachers’ reports. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha; 0.86 and 0.89), test-retest reliability (ICC; 0.72 and 0.83 for parents and teacher’ ratings, respectively), and interrater reliability (ICC; 0.72) showed well-accepted measurement performance.

The findings indicated that the Farsi SRS-2 can be used as a reliable instrument to measure social responsiveness as autistic symptoms in Iranian child population.