Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of a Dutch Version of the Actions and Feelings Questionnaire in Autistic and Neurotypical Adults

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 1771 - 1777
• Main Authors: van der Meer, Hedwig A., Sheftel-Simanova, Irina, Kan, Cornelis C., Trujillo, James P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-04-2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adult; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnosis; Autistic Disorder - diagnosis; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; Communication Skills; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Cultural Differences; Divergence; Dutch version; Emotions; Evaluation; Foreign Countries; Gestures; Humans; Indo European Languages; Neurological Impairments; Neurosciences; Nonverbal Communication; Original Paper; Pediatrics; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Psychology; Psychometrics; Public Health; Questionnaires; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Self Evaluation (Individuals); Self report; Surveys and Questionnaires; Translation; Translations and translating; Validity; Visual communication; Netherlands; Autism; Translation; Action; Questionnaire; Motor cognition
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-021-05082-w

The actions and feelings questionnaire (AFQ) provides a short, self-report measure of how well someone uses and understands visual communicative signals such as gestures. The objective of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the AFQ into Dutch (AFQ-NL) and validate this new version in neurotypical and autistic populations. Translation and adaptation of the AFQ consisted of forward translation, synthesis, back translation, and expert review. In order to validate the AFQ-NL, we assessed convergent and divergent validity. We additionally assessed internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha. Validation and reliability outcomes were all satisfactory. The AFQ-NL is a valid adaptation that can be used for both autistic and neurotypical populations in the Netherlands.