An Evaluation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes-Test With Seventh to Ninth Graders

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders are often considered to have difficulty with using facial cues (e. g., cues from the eye region) to understand others' mental states. One of the pioneering assessments to test competence in this skill is the Reading the Mind in the Eyes-Test (RMET). In order to find out more about the psychometric properties of the instrument and to provide reference data from typically developing individuals, the child version of the RMET (28 items) was conducted with 596 typically developing students attending grades 7 to 9. The score distribution was negatively skewed and correct answers ranged from 6 to 27 (M = 17.8, SD = 3.5). Given that the internal consistency of the RMET (alpha = .53) was low and item-total correlations were not satisfactory, gender and grade differences found in this sample should be interpreted cautiously. The findings are discussed in reference to previous studies using the RMET and their relevance for clinical practice.