The Theory of Mind Inventory-2 appears to be a promising measure assessing children's theory of mind. However, a lack of evidence on its factorial structure interferes with score interpretation. To examine whether the currently-available structures of the Theory of Mind Inventory-2 are robust and replicable, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in 242 children with autism spectrum disorder aged 3–12 years. Two possible structures were examined: the development-based structure, which reflects children's developmental stages of theory of mind (early, basic, and advanced), and the content-based structure, which represents children's social-related functions (emotion recognition, mental state term comprehension, and pragmatics). Four fit indices were adopted simultaneously to examine the model fit of both structures. We found that the development-based structure had a better model fit and was further modified. After modification, the development-based structure showed an improved model fit, but it was not completely acceptable in all fit indices. These findings suggest that the scores of the Theory of Mind Inventory-2 are more appropriate for reflecting children's developmental stages of theory of mind than the social-related functions in children with autism spectrum disorder. However, the domain scores should be cautiously interpreted because the model fits were not completely acceptable. For further revisions, ambiguous terms (e.g., “want” and “need”) and confusing concepts assessed by the items (e.g., “recognize” and “understand”) could be specified for a better representation of children's developmental stages of theory of mind. Moreover, further validations are needed.

中文翻译：

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心理量表理论-2 在自闭症谱系障碍儿童中的因子效度

Theory of Mind Inventory-2 似乎是评估儿童心理理论的一个很有前途的衡量标准。然而，缺乏关于其因子结构的证据会干扰分数解释。为了检查心理量表理论-2 当前可用的结构是否稳健且可复制，我们对 242 名 3-12 岁的自闭症谱系障碍儿童进行了验证性因素分析。研究了两种可能的结构：基于发展的结构，它反映了儿童心理理论的发展阶段（早期、基础和高级），以及基于内容的结构，它代表了儿童的社会相关功能（情绪识别、心理状态）术语理解和语用学）。同时采用四个拟合指数来检查两种结构的模型拟合。我们发现基于开发的结构具有更好的模型拟合并被进一步修改。修改后，基于开发的结构显示出改进的模型拟合，但并非在所有拟合指标上都完全可以接受。这些发现表明，与自闭症谱系障碍儿童的社会相关功能相比，心理理论量表2的分数更适合反映儿童心理理论的发展阶段。但是，应谨慎解释领域分数，因为模型拟合并不完全可以接受。为了进一步修订，可以指定模糊的术语（例如，“想要”和“需要”）和项目评估的混淆概念（例如，“认识”和“理解”），以更好地代表儿童心理理论的发展阶段. 而且，