Psychometric Properties of the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Second Edition in Autistic Youth

Autism affects as many as one in 36 children, a majority of whom experience comorbid anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms share phenotypic similarities with autism characteristics (e.g., repetitive thoughts and behaviors) and some symptoms are difficult to disentangle (e.g., obsessions from specific interests/fixations). Hence, there is a need for OCD assessments that are validated to be used among autistic youth. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale - Second Edition (CY-BOCS-II) in 91 autistic youth seeking treatment for anxiety and/or obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The CY-BOCS-II demonstrated strong convergent and divergent validity, internal consistency, and treatment sensitivity. The CY-BOCS-II is a psychometrically sound measure of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in autistic youth, although it should be evaluated across larger and more diverse samples.