Autism Research最新文献

Previous research indicates that difficulties with expressing remorse may contribute to the longer sentences autistic individuals receive within the criminal justice system. These differences in remorse expression may stem from their reduced ability to perceive emotions in others. This study investigated the association between an individual's level of autistic traits and their remorse perception ability. We also examined the influence of Affective Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to understand others' emotional experiences, in remorse perception. We thought that the more autistic traits with which a person presented, the poorer their ability to perceive remorse would be, with overall ToM and affective ToM serving as mediating factors. Forty-five autistic and 47 non-autistic individuals assessed a series of facial expressions to determine the perceived level of remorse in each face. Results revealed that neither the combination of autistic traits nor any individual trait was significantly correlated with remorse perception ability. Additionally, autistic traits did not indirectly impact the perception of remorse through either overall ToM or affective ToM. These findings imply that individuals with high autistic traits, regardless of their perspective-taking abilities, exhibit similar capacities for perceiving remorseful expressions to those with less autistic traits—at least when the stimuli are static. Future research should investigate the differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals in perceiving remorse through different modalities of emotional expression, including behavioral and verbal cues.

Research and clinical work demonstrate that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs; including autistic adults and adults with other IDDs) struggle with key outcomes in adult life, including social relationships, employment, autonomy, and life satisfaction. However, few validated measures exist to measure these outcomes in adults with IDDs. The Relationships, Employment, Autonomy, and Life Satisfaction (REALS) Measures were created using methods developed by the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) to assess these outcomes. Large item pools were generated for the four domains, and, in field testing, 875 adults with IDDs (90% autistic; 18.4% with intellectual disability or a non-autism IDD) and 911 proxy reporters (caregivers; 79% autistic; 48.3% with intellectual disability or a non-autism IDD) completed 108 and 74 items, respectively, using response options capturing frequency, level of support needed, and satisfaction. The structure and item content of the REALS Measures were determined through an iterative process using both classical test theory and item response theory analyses. The final versions include 19 self-report and 14 proxy-report measures, with a range of 3 to 14 items each. The measures have excellent psychometric properties, high precision, and acceptable respondent burden. Thus, they are applicable for service provision, clinical, and research arenas for autistic adults and adults with other IDDs, though additional testing in IDD is warranted and evidence supporting self-report use in IDD is more limited.

Parents of autistic children are at a higher risk for mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, and stress. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) that targets children's emotion regulation may have an indirect influence on parent outcomes, especially if they play a supporting role in their child's intervention. However, most CBT interventions have been carried out in highly controlled research settings and there are a few studies that examined parental outcomes after participating in autistic child-focused CBT within a community setting. The current study examined parent outcomes (i.e., mental health problems, mindful parenting, and parenting practices) following a community-based CBT program with concurrent parent involvement for autistic children, as well as associations between changes in parent and child outcomes (i.e., autism symptoms and emotion dysregulation). Participants included 77 parent–child dyads across seven community organizations in Ontario, Canada. Parents reported improved mindful parenting and positive parenting practices post-intervention, and no significant changes in their mental health. Multiple mediation analyses revealed that positive changes in parent outcomes (i.e., mindful parenting and parenting practices) were associated with positive changes in child emotion regulation. These positive changes in parenting practices mediated the relationship between mindful parenting and child emotion regulation. Results suggest that participating in community-based CBT is mutually beneficial for autistic children and their parents, particularly in improving parenting behaviors.

Central sensitivity syndromes (CSSs) are a group of health conditions thought to include an underlying sensitisation of the central nervous system. Evidence suggests autistic adults experience poorer physical health than the general population and are more likely to have a CSS. This study examined CSS diagnoses and symptoms in autistic and non-autistic adults, to determine whether CSS symptoms were related to autistic traits, mental health, sensory sensitivity, age or gender. Participants included 534 adults with clinical diagnoses of autism, CSS, both diagnoses or neither (i.e., comparison group), who were recruited through social media, support groups and institutional affiliations. Participants completed online self-report validated questionnaires, including the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI), Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ), and the PHQ-9 and GAD-7. Autistic people without a diagnosed CSS reported significantly more CSS symptoms than the comparison group, with a mean score above the clinical cut-off. Non-autistic participants with a CSS had significantly more autistic traits than the comparison group. Autistic people with a CSS reported the most sensory sensitivity, with autism only and CSS only groups reporting similar levels of sensory sensitivity and all diagnostic groups reporting more sensory sensitivity than the comparison group. Sensory sensitivity, anxiety, autistic traits, age and gender were all significant predictors of CSS symptoms. The overlap in symptoms between autistic individuals and those with CSS suggests diagnostic overshadowing and possible under-diagnosis or misdiagnosis. Furthermore, these symptoms may exacerbate or mask one another. Notwithstanding potential limitations of representativeness and selection bias, increased awareness of the association between autistic traits and CSS symptoms is important for clinicians to improve diagnostic accuracy and treatment.

Although autism is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder, its features change across the life course due to a combination of individual and contextual influences. However, the influence of contextual factors on development during childhood and beyond is less frequently studied than individual factors such as genetic variants that increase autism risk, IQ, language, and autistic features. Potentially important contexts include the family environment and socioeconomic status, social networks, school, work, services, neighborhood characteristics, environmental events, and sociocultural factors. Here, we articulate the benefit of studying contextual factors, and we offer selected examples of published longitudinal autism studies that have focused on how individuals develop within context. Expanding the autism research agenda to include the broader context in which autism emerges and changes across the life course can enhance understanding of how contexts influence the heterogeneity of autism, support strengths and resilience, or amplify disabilities. We describe challenges and opportunities for future research on contextual influences and provide a list of digital resources that can be integrated into autism data sets. It is important to conceptualize contextual influences on autism development as main exposures, not only as descriptive variables or factors needing statistical control.

The present study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale: Second Edition (CARS2) in diagnosing individuals with autism in Iran. A mixed-method approach was used and 313 participants were recruited, with an age range of 2–32 years, for CARS2-Standard Form (ST) and 218 individuals aged 6–25 years for CARS2-High Functioning (HF). The participants were recruited from daycare centers, schools, and clinics with different developmental trajectories: autism, intellectual disabilities, and neurotypical development. All participants with autism and intellectual disabilities had been clinically diagnosed previously. In addition, the CARS2-Questionnaire of Parent Concerns (QPC) was used to gather qualitative data on 30 randomly selected parents and the perspectives of the 20 test administrators were also collected. The CARS2 had high internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and test–retest reliability. Factor analyses revealed a one-factor structure for CARS2-ST and a three-factor structure for CARS2-HF. When adjustments were made to the cut-off points, the discriminant analyses indicated that CARS2 effectively differentiated between those with autism and typical development but less so with persons who had intellectual disabilities. The qualitative data analysis and the extracted themes suggest that the CARS2-QPC is a valid tool for collecting autism-related information from parents. Our findings suggest that the CARS2 is broadly a reliable and valid instrument for diagnosing autism spectrum in Iran in the absence of more extensive assessments.