Table 2.
Correlation matrix for patient-centered measures, parent/caregiver measures, and adaptive behavior measures of clinically meaningful progress among children receiving applied behavior analysis
| Behavior reduction and target goals (% met) | Expressive and receptive communication goals (% met) | Pragmatic communication goals (% met) | Self-help and daily living skills (% met) | Caregiver education and participation goals (% met) | Adaptive Behavior Composite (12-month difference score) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months | Outcome 1 | Outcome 2 | Outcome 3 | ||||
| Outcome 1 (0.50) | Behavior reduction and target goals (% met) | (0.52) | 0.16* | 0.22* | 0.18* | 0.15 | 0.07 |
| Expressive and receptive communication goals (% met) | (0.37) | 0.46* | 0.27* | 0.07 | 0.16 | ||
| Pragmatic communication goals (% met) | (0.37) | 0.28* | 0.17* | < 0.01 | |||
| Self-help and daily living skills (% met) | (0.44) | 0.18* | 0.07 | ||||
| Outcome 2 (NA) | Caregiver education and participation goals (% met) | NA | −0.04 | ||||
| Outcome 3 (NA) | Adaptive Behavior Composite (12-month difference score) | NA | |||||
| 24 months | Outcome 1 | Outcome 2 | Outcome 3 | ||||
| Outcome 1 (0.11) | Behavior reduction and target goals (% met) | (0.38) | −0.14 | −0.17* | 0.01 | −0.02 | − 0.19* |
| Expressive and receptive communication goals (% met) | (−0.05) | 0.46 | 0.12 | 0.11 | 0.06 | ||
| Pragmatic communication goals (% met) | (−0.25) | 0.12 | 0.22* | 0.06 | |||
| Self-help and daily living skills (% met) | (0.07) | 0.06 | −0.14 | ||||
| Outcome 2 (NA) | Caregiver education and participation goals (% met) | NA | −0.02 | ||||
| Outcome 3 (NA) | Adaptive Behavior Composite (12-month difference score) | NA | |||||
This table shows a correlation matrix with Pearson R correlation coefficients for associations between clinical outcome measures in a sample of 154 children (3–17 years) receiving Applied Behavior Analysis for Autism Spectrum Disorder after 12 months of ABA and after 24 months of ABA (*Value is significant at the 0.05 level). Outcome 1 is clinical improvement on patient-centered goals; Outcome 2 is clinical improvement in caregiver/parent goals; and Outcome 3 is clinical improvement in adaptive behavior. Bold values are those where convergent validity is expected (homotrait-heteromethod). Parentheses indicate internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) for the outcome if the item where the parentheses are located was excluded (for outcomes with only 1 item, no internal consistency reliability was calculated). The overall internal consistency reliability for each outcome is shown in the table subheadings