Early measurement of autism risk constructs in the general population: A new factor structure of the First Years Inventory (FYIv3.1) for ages 6–16 months

Abstract

Early detection of autism risk in the community is critical to increasing families' access to early intervention, yet few measures have been developed and tested for the general population of infants <16 months to tap a broader range of autism risk constructs. This study aimed to (a) examine the factor structure of the First Years Inventory, version 3.1 (FYIv3.1), with a sample of 6454 infants 6-16 months, and (b) determine the ability of the resulting factors to discriminate clinical outcome groups at 3 years of age. The FYIv3.1 is a parent-report tool designed to detect early behavioral risk signs that may be associated with a later diagnosis of ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions. Factor analytic models were used to determine the number of constructs and inter-factor correlations. Findings supported a seven-factor structure: communication, imitation and play (CIP); social attention and affective engagement (SAE); sensory hyperresponsiveness (HYPER); sensory hyporesponsiveness (HYPO); self-regulation in daily routines (SREG); sensory interests, repetitions, and seeking behaviors (SIRS); motor coordination and milestones (MCM). Mean comparisons on these factors demonstrated significant discrimination of the three outcome groups at age 3 years including those classified as having an ASD diagnosis and/or high autism symptoms, those classified as having other developmental disorders/conditions/concerns, and those classified with no known conditions/concerns. These findings support the validity and multidimensionality of early ASD risk constructs, as well as the potential use of the FYIv3.1 for phenotypic subtyping in the general population, and early detection in a broader age range of 6-16 months in future clinical studies. Lay SummaryThe FYIv3.1 is a 69-item parent-report questionnaire about infant behaviors that may indicate an elevated likelihood for later neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism. Analyses of responses from 6454 parents of infants 6-16 months indicated that items could be grouped reliably into seven categories. Compared to children with or without other developmental conditions, children in the outcome group with autism spectrum disorder and/or high autism symptoms at age three showed more behavioral risk signs in social-communication, sensory, and motor domains during infancy.

Assessment Fidelity of Parents Implementing a Standardized Telehealth Infant Autism Screener

“…The broader aim of the study was to examine individual differences in social communication and sensory regulatory behaviors in infants between 6 and 16 months of age from a community sample in the United States. The study used the First Years Inventory, version 3.1 (FYI; (Turner-Brown et al, 2013; Baranek et al, 2022) as a parent-report screener to recruit and stratify children according to various risk levels of social communication and sensory-regulatory functions. Parent–infant dyads were then further assessed with a larger clinical battery of assessments using the telehealth format.…”

Is traditional back translation enough? Comparison of translation methodology for an ASD screening tool

“…A multi‐group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine measurement invariance in MPlus (Muthén & Muthén, 2011). To begin, we examined the entire dataset for overall fit with a seven‐factor model previously identified for the FYIv3.1 (Baranek et al, 2022). Then, the two groups were compared using configural, metric, and scalar models.…”

Early developmental profiles of sensory features and links to school-age adaptive and maladaptive outcomes: A birth cohort investigation

“…The FYIv3.1 is a parent-report measure revised from a previous version (FYIv2.0) that has been validated in a large community sample (Reznick et al, 2007;Turner-Brown et al, 2013). It was designed to identify infants aged 6-16 months at risk for a later diagnosis of autism, measuring the frequency of behaviors across social communication, sensory-regulatory functions, and motor development domains with a 5-point Likert scale (Baranek et al, 2022). The FYIv3.1 data were collected at T1.…”

“…The DCQv1.5 is a parent-report measure with open-ended questions about whether a parent or professional (e.g., psychiatrists, pediatricians, or psychologists) has been concerned about the child's development and whether the child has received any clinical diagnoses. It has been used as one of the outcome measures in the validation studies of the FYI (Baranek et al, 2022;Turner-Brown et al, 2013). For this study, the DCQ data at T2 and T3 were used for clinical outcome classification.…”