A Measure of Attitudes toward Interdisciplinary Healthcare Teams Around Pediatric Autism Care

Introduction: Autism is a common neurodevelopmental condition often diagnosed in childhood that requires cross-system and -sector collaboration (e.g., educational, healthcare, community and family systems). Having a psychometrically strong tool to consistently and reliably measure clinicians’ attitudes toward healthcare teams is necessary in both research and clinical contexts. Prior researchers have developed such tools, but many lack psychometric support or are not focused on interdisciplinary healthcare teams. In the present study, we revised the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams (ATHCT) scale to explicitly address interdisciplinary healthcare teams and use inclusive language appropriate for a range of disciplines. In this study, we evaluate this revised measure—the Attitudes Toward Interdisciplinary Healthcare Teams (ATIHCT)—to determine its psychometric support. Method: Two hundred and sixteen healthcare clinicians from two samples were included in the current study to validate the ATIHCT. An exploratory factor analysis with parallel analysis using maximum likelihood was conducted to determine factor structure. Promax (orthogonal) rotation method was used as factors are assumed to be correlated. Due to the ordinal nature of response options a polychoric correlation matrix was used. Results: The ATIHCT evidenced good reliability and resulted in two distinct factors measuring healthcare providers’ perceived efficiency of interdisciplinary team-based care and perceived service quality associated with interdisciplinary team-based care. Discussion: The findings from the current study indicate that the ATIHCT is a psychometrically strong measure of healthcare provider perceptions of interdisciplinary team-based care. We discuss implications and potential uses for the ATIHCT in both clinical and research contexts. Implications for Education and Practice There is an increasing need for interdisciplinary healthcare teams in the United States, particularly in the service provision for autistic individuals. Having a psychometrically strong tool to consistently and reliably measure clinicians’ attitudes toward healthcare teams is necessary in both research and clinical contexts. The findings from the current study indicate that the ATIHCT is a psychometrically strong measure of healthcare clinicians’ perceptions of interdisciplinary team-based care.