Reliability, Validity and Responsiveness to Change of Persian Version of “Children-Scale for Hostility and Aggression: Reactive and Proactive (C-SHARP)” in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Background: Aggressive behaviors are the most critical and common challenges shown by children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) through their life. Children- scale for hostility and aggression: reactive and proactive (C-SHARP) is a comprehensive instrument for measuring aggressive behaviors. No instruments have been developed for measuring aggression in children with ASD or other developmental disabilities in the Persian language; therefore, this study aimed to assess the reliability, validity and responsiveness to change of Persian version of C-SHARP in children with ASD.Methods: This is a psychometric study with three phases including translation process, assessment of the validity and reliability, and responsiveness to change. World health organization (WHO) guidelines for translation and adaptation process were used to translate the C-SHARP. To evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument, we performed across-sectional study on 162 children with ASD and dimensionality and convergent validity, internal consistency, and composite reliability were used. In order to measure responsiveness, we performed a comparative study in the form of a free-gluten dietary intervention, and gamma correlation coefficient was used to correlate change the scores with GRS.Results: Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were reported greater than 0.85 for all subscales and the composite reliability coefficient for C-SHARP was 0.94. Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was 0.052 which confirmed robust construct of C-SHARP Persian version. Average variance extracted (AVE) for total C-SHARP was gt;0.50. Gamma correlation coefficient was 0.77, indicating excellent responsiveness to change of the instrument.Conclusion: The current study approved the reliability, validity, and responsiveness to change of the Persian C-SHARP in children with ASDs. Persian C-SHARP can be used in clinical and research settings to assess aggression.