Copyright © 2008 by Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria ORIGINALARTICLE Childhood autism: translation and validation of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale for use in Brazil

Objective: To translate the Childhood Autism Rating Scale into Brazilian Portuguese and to determine the initial psychometric properties of the resulting version (CARS-BR). Methods: The methodology used to produce an adequate version included translation, backtranslation and evaluation of semantic equivalence. In order to determine its psychometric properties (internal consistency, validity and reliability), the CARS-BR was administered to 60 consecutive patients with autism, aged between 3 and 17 years and seen at a university hospital. Results: Internal consistency was high, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.82. Convergent validity, in comparison with the Autistic Traits Assessment Scale, exhibited a Pearson’s correlation coefficient of r = 0.89.When correlated with th