ORIGINAL ARTICLE Chinese Norms for the Autism Spectrum Rating Scale Hao Zhou 1,11 • Lili Zhang 1 • Xiaobing Zou 2 • Xuerong Luo 3 • Kun Xia 4 • Lijie Wu 5 • Yimin Wang 1 • Xiu Xu 6 • Xiaoling Ge 7 • Yong-Hui Jiang 8 • Eric Fombonne 9 • Weili Yan 10 • Yi Wang 1 Received: 26 October 2016 / Accepted: 22 January 2017 / Published online: 24 February 2017 Ó The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract This study aimed to establish norms for the modified Chinese version of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scale (ASRS). Participants were recruited from Shanghai, Harbin, Guangzhou, and Changsha, China, and their par- ents and teachers were invited to complete the Chinese Parent version and the Teacher version of the ASRS. In both versions, boys had significantly higher sub-scale scores and total score (T-score) by 1–3 and 4–5 points respectively, than girls (both P \ 0.001). Age had weak correlations with some sub-scores and the T-score (r ranged from -0.1859 to 0.0738), and some reached significance (P \ 0.03). The correlations appeared stronger and were more common in females. The T-score based on Chinese norms ideally correlated with the score based on the United States norms in boys and girls for both versions. Norms for the Chinese version of the ASRS for children aged 6–12 years are proposed and may be helpful for screening individuals with autism spectrum disorders from the general population of children. Keywords Autism spectrum disorders Á Autism spectrum rating scale Á Norm Á Children Introduction Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a set of heteroge- neous neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by early-onset developmental impairments in social commu- nication and unusually restricted, repetitive behaviors and interests [1]. Epidemiological studies have identified vari- ous risk factors, but none has been shown to be necessary or sufficient for the development of autism [2]. Under- standing of the gene-environment interplay in autism is still at an early stage and needs further research. Meta-analysis [3] has shown that individuals with autism have a mortality Hao Zhou and Lili Zhang have contributed equally to this work. & Weili Yan yanwl@fudan.edu.cn & Yi Wang yiwang@shmu.edu.cn 1 Division of Neurology, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China 2 Child Development Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510000, China 3 Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410008, China 4 State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Changsha 400078, China 5 School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, China 6 Department of Child Healthcare, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China 7 Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China 8 Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Pediatrics and Neurobiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA 9 Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA 10 Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China 11 Pediatric Department, Guizhou Provincial People’s Hospital, Guiyang 550002, China 123 Neurosci. Bull. April, 2017, 33(2):161–167 www.neurosci.cn DOI 10.1007/s12264-017-0105-6 www.springer.com/12264