ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Pediatric Neurology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1648991
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Insights into Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder and its ComorbiditiesView all 5 articles
Differential Item Functioning in the Children Autism Rating Scale First Edition in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Based on A Machine Learning Approach
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, China
- 2Luohu District Maternity and Child Health-care Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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Purpose: Our study used Rasch Analysis to examine the psychometric properties of the Children Autism Rating Scale First Edition (CARS1) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Methods: The Partial Credit Model (PCM) was used to test reliability and validity. The GPCMlasso Model was used to test the differential item functioning (DIF).Results: The response pattern of this sample showed acceptable fitness for the PCM. This analysis supports the unidimensionality assumption of the CARS1. Disordered category functions and DIF were found for all items in CARS1. Performance can be related to age group, gender, symptom classification, and autistic symptoms.Conclusion: Rasch analysis provides reliable evidence to support the clinical application of the CARS1. Some items may produce inaccurate measurements originating from unreasonable category structures. Differences in age group, sex, and symptom classification can be related to test performance and may lead to unnecessary bias. Hence, clinical applications may require additional consideration of population characteristics to draw reliable conclusions.
Keywords: CARS1, Rasch model, Category function, Differential Item Functioning, ASD, machine learning
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Peng, Chen, Zhou and Weng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kanglong Peng, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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