The Social Responsiveness Scale SRS

What is it? 

The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is a tool primarily used for quantitative measurement of autism symptoms in the general population, including individuals who do not have a clinical autism diagnosis. 

It measures the severity of autism spectrum symptoms as they occur in natural social settings [1]. Although it is not a diagnostic tool for autism, it provides a clear picture of functioning in areas that could be impacted in autism.

There is both a child version filled out by caregivers and an adult self-report measure. 

Five Subscales

1. Social Awareness: Recognition of social cues 
2. Social Cognition: Interpretation of social cues 
3. Social Communication: Conveyance of appropriate responses to social cues 
4. Social Motivation: The extent to which a respondent is generally motivated to engage in social-interpersonal behavior. 
5. Autistic Mannerisms: Stereotypical behaviors and highly restricted interests characteristic of autism [2].

Scoring and Interpretation

The SRS is a 65-item rating scale, with responses ranging from "not true" to "almost always true." Scores are computed for each subscale as well as a total score that measures severity along the autism spectrum.

• Scores of 76 or higher: severe
• Scores of 60-75: mild-moderate, indicates presence of some autism symptoms
• Scores below 59: considered within typical limits, indicating no significant issues with social responsiveness [2]

History

The SRS was first developed by John N. Constantino and Christian P. Gruber, who published it in 2005. It was designed to be a quantitative measure of autism traits in the general population, including individuals who do not necessarily have an ASD diagnosis [3]. The child version was filled out by caregivers. The SRS for adults was designed to extend the applicability of the SRS to adults, addressing the need for a quantitative measure of autistic traits across the lifespan [3].

Psychometrics

The SRS demonstrates good psychometric properties. It has high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .97) and test-retest reliability (Intraclass correlation = .88) [4]. The inter-rater reliability is also good, ranging from .76 to .95 [5].

For related posts on other measures

References: 

[1] Constantino, J.N., & Gruber, C.P. (2012). Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2). Torrance, CA: Western Psychological Services.
[2] Constantino, J.N., & Gruber, C.P. (2012). Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Torrance, CA: Western Psychological Services.
[3] Constantino, J.N., & Gruber, C.P. (2005). The Social Responsiveness Scale. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
[4] Constantino, J. N., Davis, S. A., Todd, R. D., Schindler, M. K., Gross, M. M., Brophy, S. L., et al. (2003). Validation of a brief quantitative measure of autistic traits: Comparison of the social responsiveness scale with the autism diagnostic interview-revised. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33, 427–433.
[5] Bölte, S., Poustka, F., & Constantino, J. N. (2008). Assessing autistic traits: cross-cultural validation of the social responsiveness scale (SRS). Autism Research, 1(6), 354-363.ckles, A., Kreiger, A., Buja, A.,