Development and Initial Validation of The Russian Version of The RAADS-14: A Self-Report Questionnaire to Assess Autistic Traits

The aim of our research was to construct and validate a Russian version of the RAADS-14 (the RAADS-14 Rus), a brief self-report questionnaire designed for assessment of autistic traits, to provide a reference point in developing autism self-assessment tools in Russian-speaking population. The data were collected for 1724 participants, including a general sample of non-psychiatric young adults (n=849) and adults with ASD (n=49). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the RAADS-14 Rus has the same factor structure as the original Swedish version yielding acceptable fit indices. The discriminating properties, however, were substantially worse than in the original study (AUC = .92 vs .99); it stems from higher mean RAADS-14 scores for the Russian control sample vs the original controls (mean = 13.9 vs 3.9) confirming prior anecdotal evidences of greater mean scores yielded by international ASD assessment tools on Russian-speaking populations. The correlations between the RAADS-14 Rus domain scores and the Big Five factors were similar to previously obtained findings. The results of the study indicate that the RAADS-14 Rus can be used for assessment of autistic traits and, with some reservations, as an ASD screening tool for adult Russian-speaking population. Further research is necessary to develop more precise screening tools.