Ages & Stages Questionnaire–Brazil–2011: Adjustments on an Early Childhood Development Screening Measure

Introduction. Professionals who assess early childhood development highly benefit from reliable development screening measures. The Ages & Stages Questionnaire was adapted Brazil in 2010 and named ASQ-BR. Modifications in some items were required to improve the instrument’s psychometric properties. The present study modified the ASQ-BR to verify if those changes increase its characteristics. Method. This study researched 67 522 children from 972 public day care centers and preschools. Changes in items were made considering Cronbach’s α and item-to-total correlations. Reliability, dimensionality, and item-to-total correlations were calculated. Results. Regarding dimensionality, 86.2% of the scales in ASQ-BR-2011 were unidimensional. Internal consistency showed improvement from 2010 to 2011: 53.8% of the scales increased the α statistics against 41.2% that decreased, and 5.0% remained the same. Finally, 65.2% of the modified items showed improvement. Conclusions. Overall, the instrument’s psychometrics improved from 2010 to 2011, especially in the personal/social domain. However, it still leaves room for improvement in future studies.