Adaptive behavior in children with down syndrome: abas-3 validating evidences

*Correspondence: [e-mail].

Abstract

Background: Intellectual disability (ID) is characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior (AB), which has three major domains: conceptual, social and practical. For the correct diagnosis, assessment tools must be used for the objective evaluation of deficits in both intellectual and adaptive functions. However, there is a precariousness of tools that assess AB that has been subjected to a rigorous process of translation, cultural adaptation and adequacy based on evidence of validity. Currently, the gold standard is the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System – ABAS-3. It is known that Down Syndrome (DS), expresses a range of levels of ID, and consequently, of AB deficits.

Objective: Investigate the psychometric properties of ABAS-3 in a sample of school-age children with DS, comparing them with a sample of typical neurodevelopment children; compare the overall ABAS-3 score between the group with DS and the control group; verify the reliability of the scores in both groups, separately, and compare the scores between the specific ABAS-3 domains in the sample with DS to verify strength and weakness areas.

Methods: Parents filled in the Parent Form (5-21 years) of the ABAS-3. 15 children with DS aged 6 to 11 years composed the experimental group, excluding children who had symptoms of Autistic Spectrum Disorder. The control group consisted of 21 children with typical neurodevelopment, matched by age with the experimental group.

Results: Covariance analysis for comparing ABAS-3 scores between groups, controlling the effect of "type of school" (public/private) showed significant difference (p < 0.001) between groups for all ABAS-3 domains, with large effect size (partial η2 > 0.14) in all subdomains. Plus, the DS group had significantly lower scores in all domains. This data point to initial evidence of the validity of ABAS-3 criterion, since the instrument scores are sensitive in differentiating groups. Internal consistency analysis (mean of item-total correlations) in each ABAS-3 subscale showed Cronbach alpha values between 0.85 and 0.96 for all subscales.

Conclusion: Considering the international recommendations on the values of the instruments' reliability coefficients, it was observed that the consistency of the subscales are adequate, indicating low levels of measurement errors. Comparing the scoresbetween groups, some similarity is noted in the pattern of strength and weakness areas, however the DS group kept lower scores.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
12. Mai 2025