[PDF] Development of the 'Extreme Demand Avoidance Questionnaire' (EDA-Q): preliminary observations on a trait measure for Pathological Demand Avoidance. | Semantic Scholar (2024)

Inspection of the test information function suggests that the EDA-8 may be a useful tool to identify children on the autism spectrum who show an extreme response to demands, as a starting point for more in-depth assessment.

The observer-rated EDA Questionnaire for children was adapted as an adult self-report (EDA-QA), and tested in relation to personality and the short-form Autism Screening Questionnaire (ASQ) to find the EDA- QA reliable, univariate, and correlated with negative affect, antagonism, disinhibition, psychoticism, and ASQ scores.

This study brings the field a step closer to a clinician-rated measure of PDA features and highlights the need for further elucidation of the PDA phenotype.

Regression analyses indicate that demand avoidant behaviour can be conceptualised in part as a possible attempt to increase certainty and predictability to alleviate increasing anxiety in children who show PDA behaviour.

An in-depth exploration of parent perspectives on maladaptive behaviour in children reported to have an autism spectrum diagnosis and features of extreme/'pathological' demand avoidance is provided.

This study explored what parents of children with extreme demand avoidance valued about professionals’ input, and found involvement most helpful when it resulted in comprehensive assessment, appropriate intervention, practical advice and management strategies, and a focus on the well-being of all family members.

It is a major step forward that O'Nions and co-workers have developed a new 'trait measure' for PDA ('the EDA-Q'), a measure that appears to hold considerable promise for research, and eventually for clinical practice.

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The first systematic comparison of the behavioural profile of children receiving the term pathological demand avoidance to children with autism spectrum disorders or conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits is presented, using parent-report indices of psychopathology.

Discriminant functions analysis shows PDA to be significantly different on many counts from classic autism and Asperger’s syndrome, both separately and together, including an equal sex ratio.

Details on a syndrome which was identified over a long period of time by Professor Elizabeth Newson, who named this Pathological Demand Avoidance syndrome and first brought it to public attention in 1980’s are provided.

The reliability and validity of the SDQ make it a useful brief measure of the adjustment and psychopathology of children and adolescents.

This paper focuses on two recent approaches that have great potential for integrating past subtyping approaches and for advancing causal theory, and to designate children within the childhood-onset group who show callous and unemotional traits, analogous to adult conceptualizations of psychopathy.

Preliminary findings suggest that the SDQ functions as well as the Rutter questionnaires while offering the following additional advantages: a focus on strengths as as difficulties; better coverage of inattention, peer relationships, and prosocial behaviour; a shorter format; and a single form suitable for both parents and teachers, perhaps thereby increasing parent-teacher correlations.

An overview of the current evidence base with regard to callous-unemotional and non-callous subgroups of children with antisocial behaviour is provided and the implications of theCurrent evidence base for prevention and intervention are discussed.

The historical background of the DISCO, its structure and the results of an inter-rater reliability study with parents of 82 children aged 3 to 11 years with autistic spectrum disorder, learning disability, language disorder or typical development are described.