Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness and construct validity of the standardized Korean version of the social-emotional scale from the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition (K-Bayley-III) as a screening tool for autism spectrum disorder. Participants were 248 typically developing infants and toddlers and 44 infants and toddlers with autism who ranged in age from 16 days to 42 months and 15 days. We used receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to identify the scale's discriminant power and a cut-off point, and nomological network analysis to verify the construct validity. The results were as follows: first, ROC analysis showed that the social-emotional scale was useful as a screening instrument for autism spectrum disorder. Further, 7 points was found to be suitable as the cut-off point for discriminating children with autism from children with typical development. Second, in the nomological network analysis, the postulated model based on Greenspan's functional-emotional theory provided a reasonably good fit to the date, so the construct validity was ascertained. Practical applications and suggestions for future research were discussed.