Self-compassion is a gentle way of relating to oneself, linked to a host of mental health benefits in non-autistic people. Although many autistic individuals report high anxiety and depression symptoms, no research to-date has examined the self-compassion experiences of autistic individuals and determined if self-compassion is associated with…

Research has linked pre- and perinatal complications (PPCs) with increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, PPCs are also known risk factors for other mental health disorders. This study explored which PPCs are specific risk factors for ASD, as opposed to other forms of psychopathology, among a large sample of clinically-referred…

We measured skin conductance response (SCR) to escalating levels of a direct social threat from a novel, ecologically-relevant experimental paradigm, the Intruder Threat Task. We simultaneously evaluated the contribution of social symptom severity and behavioral movement. Children with AS group showed less psychophysiological reactivity to social…

Adult siblings of individuals with developmental disabilities often experience higher levels of anxiety than individuals in the general population. The present study tested whether perceived parenting could mediate the relationship between attachment styles and anxiety in the sibling group compared to a control group. Little association was found…

Samson et al. ("Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders" 41:475-483, 2011) conducted the first empirical investigation examining the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) and its prevalence in individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (hfASD). The present research examined gelotophobia in relation to social…

Young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a high prevalence (~40 %) of anxiety disorders compared to their non-ASD peers. It is unclear whether cognitive and biological processes associated with anxiety in ASD are analogous to anxiety in typically developing (TD) populations. In this study 55 boys with ASD (34 with a co-occurring…

Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties are a major concern in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Maternal temperament and parenting style have significant effects on children's ER. However, these effects have not been studied in children with ASD. Forty preschoolers with ASD and their mothers and forty matched controls engaged in fear and…

Cognitive control dysfunctions, like inhibitory and attentional flexibility deficits are assumed to underlie repetitive behavior in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In the present study, prepotent response inhibition and attentional flexibility were examined in 64 high-functioning individuals with ASD and 53 control participants.…

State-specific 1915(c) Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waiver programs have become central in the provision of services specifically tailored to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Using propensity score matching, 130 families receiving waiver services for a child with ASD were matched with and compared to 130 families…

This meta-analysis examined 36 studies comparing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and control groups in reading comprehension. Three moderators (semantic knowledge, decoding skill, PIQ) and two text types (high vs. low social knowledge) were examined as predictors of reading comprehension in ASD. The overall standardized mean difference for reading…

Genetic liability to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be expressed in unaffected relatives through subclinical, genetically meaningful traits, or endophenotypes. This study aimed to identify developmental endophenotypes in parents of individuals with ASD by examining parents' childhood academic development over the school-age period. A cohort of…