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| Further Validating the Idiosyncratic Mood Indices of Autistic Children Through Physiological Measures |
| Sunday, May 26, 2024 |
| 4:00 PM–4:50 PM |
| Convention Center, 100 Level, 103 B |
| Area: AUT |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| Chair: Devon Ramey (Queen's University Belfast) |
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| Further Validating the Idiosyncratic Mood Indices of Autistic Children Through Physiological Measures |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| DEVON RAMEY (Queen's University Belfast) |
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| Abstract: Happiness is fundamental to a person’s quality of life (QoL), but there are barriers to measuring the happiness of autistic individuals using traditional methods. Researchers often rely on neurotypical indicators of happiness and unhappiness to assess the mood of individuals with limited communication, but the use of such indices may not be suitable for autistic individuals, who can engage in idiosyncratic mood indicators (e.g., stimming). For this reason, we re-examined an approach for identifying and validating the unique mood indices of autistic children during Study 1. It was found that their individualized indices of happiness and unhappiness could be operationally defined and reliably measured. Using these indices as QoL indicators, practitioners have a more objective approach to assessing the social validity of their interventions. But despite their potential utility, there is an ongoing debate within the behavior analytic community about the validity of these indices for measuring happiness, which is considered a private event. Therefore, the purpose of Study 2 was to replicate the procedures from Study 1 with the addition of physiological measures to further validate the individualized indices of happiness and unhappiness of autistic children. This study is ongoing and the results will be presented at the conference. |
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