Developing a Quantitative Assessment Tool for Characterizing Social Domains

Project Summary/Abstract Social deficits occur across a wide array of neuropsychiatric (NPD) and neurodevelopmental (NDD) disorders and contribute to poor outcomes and sizable public health costs. However, the lack of adequate characterization of mechanisms underpinning social impairments by the current categorical diagnostic systems has significantly stifled the development of etiologically based, individually tailored treatments. A fully dimensional alternative to the categorical frameworks offered by the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) holds particular promise for a better understanding of mechanisms behind social deficits. More specifically, the RDoC initiative operationalizes an initial set of basic, biologically meaningful components that underpin social functioning, and if disrupted, can impede one’s ability to navigate the complexities of the social world. These processes can therefore be used to better understand social deficits seen across NPD/NDD and inform personalization of treatments. However, we currently lack dedicated measures able to comprehensively capture components of social functioning across clinical, at risk and normative populations which has significantly impeded the translation and adoption of this potentially promising framework. Therefore, the overarching aim of this project is to further expand a recently developed RDoC-based social processes scale: The Stanford Social Dimensions Scale (SSDS). The goal is to refine, factorize, validate and establish regression-based norms of the updated SSDS (SSDS-2). We will also aim to construct a preliminary computerized adaptive testing (CAT) version of the SSDS-2 that will enable individually tailored item selection and administration. These objectives will be achieved by: 1) obtaining feedback on a preliminary item bank from experts and parents of children from normative and clinical groups in order to evaluate the content validity, developmental appropriateness and clinical relevance of the items and to guide the item refinement (Specific Aim 1); 2) utilizing advanced psychometric approaches including exploratory structural equation modeling and item response theory on a large online recruited clinically diverse and normative sample to establish the factor structure (Specific Aim 2); 3) confirming factor structure of the SSDS-2, establishing regression based and standardized change norms and constructing a preliminary CAT version (Specific Aim 3); and further validating the SSDS-2 through an in-person multi-method assessment protocol encompassing interview, observational and experimental methodology with a transdiagnostic sample of youth with a range of social abilities and typically developing youth and their parents. An additional goal is to examine the association between the SSDS-2 subdomains with the neural networks subserving corresponding social processes in a transdiagnostic subsample of youth (Specific Aim 4). This project will lay the foundation for future investigations aimed at: (i) extending the new measure to different age groups (2-5 years and adulthood); (ii) developing a companion clinician-rated structured interview, and (iii) testing its utility as a clinical outcome measure.