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Normative data and psychometric properties of a farsi translation of the strange stories test
Author(s) -
Shahrivar Zahra,
TehraniDoost Mehdi,
Khorrami Banaraki Anahita,
Mohammadzadeh Azar,
Happe Francesca
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
autism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.656
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1939-3806
pISSN - 1939-3792
DOI - 10.1002/aur.1844
Subject(s) - theory of mind , psychology , normative , mentalization , autism , cbcl , test (biology) , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , cognition , psychiatry , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , biology
Background and objective The Strange Stories test is one of the most commonly used tests to evaluate advanced “theory of mind,” i.e. attribution of mental states. Normative data and psychometric properties of a new Farsi translation of this test were evaluated in a large community‐based sample of Iranian school‐aged children. Methods: Through randomized cluster sampling, 398 children aged 9–11 years studying at 20 elementary schools were recruited from 4 central regions of Tehran, Iran. The mean age of the students was 9.96 years (SD = 0.92), and 51% were girls ( n = 202). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was completed by parents. The Strange Stories test was completed by all children and repeated for 20% of them after 2–4 weeks to assess the test‐retest reliability. Findings: Students in upper grades had higher scores ( P < .01); age predicted 2% of variance on the mental state score. Girls had significantly higher mentalizing scores than boys ( P = .003). The split‐half internal reliability coefficient was good (0.73). The test‐retest reliability was fair to good. Item‐scale score correlations were all significant ( P < .01). Conclusion: This new translation of the Strange Stories test is a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate higher level theory of mind abilities in community samples of Farsi speaking children. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1960–1967 . © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary “Mentalizing” or “theory of mind,” the ability to recognize others' mental states, is a key aspect of social understanding. Mentalizing problems are characteristic of some clinical conditions such as autism. The Strange Stories is a test evaluating mentalizing in every day social situations. It was translated into Farsi language and administered to a group of Iranian school‐aged children. The instrument was useful in assessing children's mind reading. Older children and girls were better in mentalizing ability.