Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders最新文献

Purpose: Standardized observational tools are part of the gold standard for autism assessment, leading to the most reliable diagnoses. Widely used tools are often costly, require extensive training, and lack validation for use with multilingual and low-income populations, factors that contribute to prolonged diagnostic wait times.

Method: This study examined psychometric properties of the Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism (BOSA), a 12- to 14-min semi-structured observation designed as an autism assessment tool for both virtual and in-person administration. We evaluated the BOSA's sensitivity and specificity in both English and Spanish within a Latinx, predominantly low-income sample (N = 98), among other psychometric properties.

Results: Findings indicate that the BOSA is a promising tool that can be used as a screener or as a part of a comprehensive evaluation administered across languages, settings (home, clinic, community), and interactants (caregivers, clinicians) for individuals with limited verbal abilities, though further research is needed to optimize its use with more verbally fluent populations.

Conclusion: These results add to the literature, positioning the BOSA as a promising, affordable, and adaptable tool for improving timely access to high-quality autism assessments in culturally and linguistically diverse, underserved communities. Additional research is needed to assess its usefulness in different circumstances while aiming to increase ease and efficiency of coding. The BOSA's suitability for use by non-specialists in intervention and school-based settings could help reduce diagnostic delays that disproportionately affect families of color from non-English-speaking households, making its optimization an important future goal.

Purpose: Previous research has documented disparities in autism prevalence and the co-occurrence of intellectual disability (ID) with autism for children from immigrant communities. The current study compared autism prevalence and co-occurrence of ID in 8-year-olds across racial/ethnic groups using data from the Minnesota site of the CDC Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, with a focus on two large racial/ethnic groups: Somali and Hmong.

Methods: Systematic review of health and educational records was performed within a defined geographic area, and data were combined from 2014 to 2016 surveillance years to obtain adequate sample sizes to compare prevalence and co-occurrence of ID across race/ethnicity.

Results: Somali children had a higher autism prevalence compared to Hispanic, Hmong, and non-Hmong Asian children, with prevalence ratios (PR) of 1.8, 2.1, and 2.1, respectively. Hmong children had a significantly lower autism prevalence compared to White (PR 0.6) and non-Somali Black (PR 0.7) children. Significant differences in co-occurring ID status were found by race/ethnicity.

Conclusion: Identifying subgroups of children with higher prevalence of autism or greater co-occurring ID can inform public health policy and improve outcomes for individuals with autism and their families. Differences in prevalence and co-occurring ID by race/ethnicity may suggest barriers to service utilization.

Purpose: This study aimed to characterize the epidemiological and clinical profile of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) evaluated at a regional Youth Psychiatric Emergency Unit, and to explore factors leading families to seek emergency psychiatric care.

Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted through retrospective chart review of patients seen in the emergency service over a one-year period. Patients with a confirmed ASD diagnosis were included. Categorical variables were compared using Pearson's chi-square or Fisher's exact test, and continuous variables were analyzed using independent samples Student's t-test.

Results: During the study period, 112 patients with ASD (6.7% of total visits) were seen, and 26 (23.2%) received their first ASD diagnosis at the emergency service. The majority were male (83%) with a mean age of 10 ± 4 years. The mean age at diagnosis among those identified for the first time in the emergency setting was 8.86 ± 4.7 years, indicating a late diagnosis. The most frequent presenting complaints were agitation, aggression, and irritability. Compared to the non-ASD group, ASD patients had significantly higher rates of intellectual disability and epilepsy.

Conclusion: Findings highlight the role of psychiatric emergency units as potential entry points into the mental health system for children and adolescents with ASD, particularly in middle-income countries where early access to specialized care is often limited. These results underscore the importance of training emergency professionals in managing neurodevelopmental crises and providing families with guidance on how to respond to behavioral emergencies.

Purpose: Autistic youth are at increased risk for needing emergency services compared to their non-autistic peers. While research has begun to explore the nature of emergency service use in this group, researchers have not yet assessed important individual-, family-, and community-level factors that may be associated with these encounters. This study aimed to address this gap in the field via a mixed methods design by characterizing families of autistic children who have utilized emergency services, examining factors accounting for significant differences in service utilization, and exploring family experiences and satisfaction with emergency service encounters.

Method: 77 caregivers of autistic individuals who endorsed current child challenging behavior completed measures assessing child, family, and community variables. 38 caregivers had used emergency services in recent years; a subset of caregivers (n = 8) completed interviews about their experiences with emergency services.

Results: Bivariate analyses and a multivariate analysis of variance were conducted with individual, family, and community variables to determine group differences for families with and without recent emergency service use. Child psychiatric co-occurring conditions (F(3, 70) = 17.40, p < .001, partial η² = 0.20) and child aggressive behavior (F(1, 72) = 11.22, p = .001, partial η² = 0.14) were significantly associated with emergency service use. In qualitative interviews, caregivers described a range of facilitators and barriers to emergency care.

Conclusions: These findings shed light on clinical characteristics that may be important for developing prevention efforts and indicate a significant need for broad reform at the intersection of emergency care and autism services.

Purpose: Theory of mind is the capacity to understand others' mental states, such as their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, even when they differ from one's own. The Short Story Task is a measure of individual differences in theory of mind in adults, where respondents are scored on the accuracy of their mental state inferences about characters in the story. However, it collects open-ended responses and thus requires labour-intensive subjective scoring. The present study tested the validity of a new multiple-choice response format of the Short Story Task (SST-MCQ).

Method: People on the Autism Spectrum can have difficulty with theory of mind. Therefore, a common validation approach for theory of mind measures is to demonstrate reduced task performance for those on the Autism Spectrum and/or those higher in autistic traits. Here, participants with an Autism Spectrum diagnosis and neurotypical participants were recruited for two studies, and participants completed the SST-MCQ and Autism Quotient (AQ-10).

Results: A combined analysis of the two studies (256 Autism Spectrum participants and 263 neurotypical) showed higher autistic traits as measured by the AQ-10 were associated with lower SST-MCQ scores (r_s = - 0.11). When restricted to those who AQ scores matched their group classification (126 Autism Spectrum and 246 neurotypical), the Autism Spectrum group had lower SST-MCQ scores than neurotypical participants (r_rb = 0.13).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that SST-MCQ scores provide a valid measure of individual differences in theory of mind ability for adult participants.

Purpose: The diagnosis of Autism relies partly on the evaluation of social behavior. What is perceived as "appropriate" (social) behavior is influenced by culture, as culture shapes norms and beliefs about behavior. Culture might thus influence the interpretation of autistic traits and the diagnostic process. We aimed to study whether culture affects the interpretation and reporting of autistic traits and how autism knowledge is associated with these relations.

Methods: To do so, we investigated cross-cultural differences in self-reported autistic traits (autism-spectrum Quotient) and the commonness of these traits in Iran (n = 88), Malaysia (n = 181), Morocco (n = 94), and the Netherlands (n = 113). Additionally, we explored the relationship between (the commonness of) autistic traits and autism knowledge (Revised Autism Knowledge Survey) across these countries.

Results: The results indicated, consistent with previous studies, cross-cultural differences in both self-reported autistic traits and the commonness of these traits. Cross-cultural differences in reporting autistic traits showed that cultural background might affect their interpretation. There was a relationship between self-reported and the commonness of autistic traits. When autistic traits are considered more common, people also self-report more traits. In addition, more knowledge about autism was related to lower self-reported traits. However, within individual countries, the relationships were more nuanced.

Conclusion: It is, hence, essential to consider cultural background and autism knowledge when assessing autism cross-culturally.