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Anxiety commonly co-occurs in autism. Exploring and understanding potential underpinning mechanisms contributing to and maintaining anxiety in the early years is important in managing anxiety. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a tendency to find uncertainty difficult, is a transdiagnostic mechanism contributing to anxiety, but little is known about how IU may be experienced in young children on the autism spectrum. This study investigated parental perspectives of children's experiences of uncertainty.
A comparison of parents’ experiences of getting a diagnosis for their child with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and both diagnoses can inform our understanding of common and unique themes across these neurodevelopmental conditions.
A diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition (autism) provides limited information regarding an individual’s level of functioning, information key in determining support and funding needs.
To identify factors associated with quality of life (QoL) in children with intellectual disability. We aimed to identify patterns of association not observable in previous hypothesis-driven regression modelling using the same data set from a cross-sectional observational study.
Altered drive to socially engage is a transdiagnostic feature across multiple psychopathologies. Yet, lack of clarity regarding specific processes that constitute social drive, along with insufficient measurement methods, has hindered understanding in this area. This study ascertained the feasibility of approximating difficulties within specific fine-grained social drive processes as proposed by 2 theoretical frameworks: “orienting,” “wanting,” “pursuing,” “liking,” “learning,” and “reticence” within a reward processing framework and “orienting,” “seeking and maintaining,” and “liking” within a social motivation framework.
Alexithymia—a trait characterized by difficulties in emotion processing—is of high interest in the autism field. However, the lack of validated alexithymia measures for autistic individuals limits progress. This study aimed to address this gap by examining the psychometric properties of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) across autistic and non-autistic samples. Using the PAQ, we investigated how alexithymia manifests in autistic individuals and its links with poor mental health outcomes (anxiety).
Autistic children have an increased likelihood of anxiety, but more research is needed on the characteristics that predict various types of anxiety in this population.
Although up to 89% of autistic children experience feeding difficulties, little is known about the impact of these difficulties on mealtime participation. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of feeding difficulties on the mealtime participation of autistic children and their families based on caregiver experiences.
We do not know much about what support services people think are okay for young autistic children. This study was a survey of 253 people. We asked autistic adults, parents, and professionals from Australia and New Zealand whether they thought it was okay to provide support services to autistic children.
Gathering Autistic young people's testimony is critical for understanding their lived experience of education and designing settings in which these students can thrive. Despite increasing knowledge in this field, we lack perspectives from a broad range of Autistic students which necessarily limits our ability to build inclusive, supportive environments for all. This study explored the educational experiences of preschool and school-aged Autistic students from diverse age groups, backgrounds, and educational settings.