CATI - The Comprehensive Autism Trait Inventory

 

• The Comprehensive Autism Trait Inventory (CATI) is a new measure of autistic traits that reflects our current understanding of autism and includes subscales for social camouflage and sensory sensitivity.
• The 42 items are divided into 6 subscales of "Social Interactions,” “Communication,” "Social Camouflage,” "Cognitive Rigidity,” "Repetitive Behaviours,” and "Sensory Sensitivity” (each with 7 items).
• It is free to use. 

Psychometrics

• (English et al., 2021) is a first validation paper that has included 3 separate studies.
• The CATI showed convergent validity and superior internal reliability compared to existing measures like the AQ and BAPQ
• The CATI provides a comprehensive assessment of trait dimensions associated with autism, potentially eliminating the need for multiple measures, and has the potential to improve research on autistic traits in the general population.

The English et al (2021) article discusses the need for a new measure of autistic traits that reflects our current understanding of autism. The article describes the development and validation of the CATI, comparing it to existing measures such as the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ). The CATI demonstrates convergent validity, superior internal reliability, and greater predictive ability for classifying autism compared to the other measures. It is also the first measure to have dedicated subscales for social camouflage and sensory sensitivity. The authors conclude that the CATI provides a reliable and comprehensive assessment of autistic traits, addressing the limitations of existing measures

• (Meng & Xuan, 2023) - A Mandarin Chinese translation of CATI that was recently validated (although only 35 of the 42 items made it into that version, likely due to issues with the model fit of the translated measure). The Chinese group also derived a 24-item short form of the Chinese CATI which appears to have good psychometrics as well. 

References
English, M.C.W., Gignac, G.E., Visser, T.A.W. et al. The Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory (CATI): development and validation of a new measure of autistic traits in the general population. Molecular Autism 12, 37 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-021-00445-7

Meng F, Xuan B. Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory. Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2023 Jun 15;16:2213-2223. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S411599. PMID: 37342828; PMCID: PMC10278863.