# Developing a Quantitative Assessment Tool for Characterizing Social Domains

> **NIH NIH R01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $578,507

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Social deficits occur across a wide array of neuropsychiatric (NPD) and neurodevelopmental (NDD) disorders
and contribute to poor outcomes and sizable public health costs. However, the lack of adequate
characterization of mechanisms underpinning social impairments by the current categorical diagnostic systems
has significantly stifled the development of etiologically based, individually tailored treatments. A fully
dimensional alternative to the categorical frameworks offered by the National Institute of Mental Health’s
Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) holds particular promise for a better understanding of mechanisms behind
social deficits. More specifically, the RDoC initiative operationalizes an initial set of basic, biologically meaningful
components that underpin social functioning, and if disrupted, can impede one’s ability to navigate the
complexities of the social world. These processes can therefore be used to better understand social deficits
seen across NPD/NDD and inform personalization of treatments. However, we currently lack dedicated
measures able to comprehensively capture components of social functioning across clinical, at risk and
normative populations which has significantly impeded the translation and adoption of this potentially promising
framework. Therefore, the overarching aim of this project is to further expand a recently developed RDoC-based
social processes scale: The Stanford Social Dimensions Scale (SSDS). The goal is to refine, factorize, validate
and establish regression-based norms of the updated SSDS (SSDS-2). We will also aim to construct a
preliminary computerized adaptive testing (CAT) version of the SSDS-2 that will enable individually tailored item
selection and administration. These objectives will be achieved by: 1) obtaining feedback on a preliminary item
bank from experts and parents of children from normative and clinical groups in order to evaluate the content
validity, developmental appropriateness and clinical relevance of the items and to guide the item refinement
(Specific Aim 1); 2) utilizing advanced psychometric approaches including exploratory structural equation
modeling and item response theory on a large online recruited clinically diverse and normative sample to
establish the factor structure (Specific Aim 2); 3) confirming factor structure of the SSDS-2, establishing
regression based and standardized change norms and constructing a preliminary CAT version (Specific Aim 3);
and further validating the SSDS-2 through an in-person multi-method assessment protocol encompassing
interview, observational and experimental methodology with a transdiagnostic sample of youth with a range of
social abilities and typically developing youth and their parents. An additional goal is to examine the association
between the SSDS-2 subdomains with the neural networks subserving corresponding social processes in a
transdiagnostic subsample of youth (Specific Aim 4). This project will la...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10694067
- **Project number:** 5R01MH129833-02
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** ANTONIO HARDAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $578,507
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-07 → 2027-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10694067

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10694067, Developing a Quantitative Assessment Tool for Characterizing Social Domains (5R01MH129833-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10694067. Licensed CC0.

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