Internalising symptoms are elevated in autism compared to the general population. Few studies have investigated emotional dysregulation (ED) as a potential mediator between specific transdiagnostic processes and anxiety and depression symptoms in autistic youth. In a sample of 94 autistic young people aged 5-18 years referred to a specialist…

The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated depression, anxiety, and executive function (EF) difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EF skills have been positively associated with mental health outcomes. Here, we probed the psychosocial impacts of pandemic responses in children with and without ASD by relating pre-pandemic EF…

Autism and anxiety are thought to be related to extreme demand avoidance (EDA), which is characterised by intense avoidance of everyday demands. However, the relative importance of autism and anxiety to EDA has yet to be investigated, and little is known about EDA in adulthood. We conducted two online survey studies (Ns = 267 and 549) with adults…

Higher rates of depression and of depressed mood are associated with autistic traits, and both are associated with social interaction factors, such as social self-efficacy, social motivation and loneliness. This study examined whether these social factors explain the association between autistic traits and depression. 658 participants (527 women)…

Children with autism spectrum disorder present with challenging behaviors that can impact caregivers by increasing parental perceived stress and risk for depression. However, positive coping strategies have also been identified as protective factors for parents of children with ASD. The present study examined parental perceived daily stressors and…

To date, studies have not established whether autistic and non-autistic individuals differ in emotion recognition from facial motion cues when matched in terms of alexithymia. Here, autistic and non-autistic adults (N = 60) matched on age, gender, non-verbal reasoning ability and alexithymia, completed an emotion recognition task, which employed…

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…

Self-determination (SD) is linked to autonomy and better adult outcomes. Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often less independent than cognitively matched peers. Given the frequency with which depression co-occurs in ASD and the established association between depression and SD, we sought to evaluate the influence of both ASD severity…

This study investigates associations between initial levels and change in the quality of the relationships youth with intellectual disabilities (ID) share with their parents and teachers, and changes in their levels of depression over time. A sample of 395 youth with mild (48.3%) and moderate (51.7%) ID, aged between 11 and 22 (M = 15.69), were…

The current study was a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data collected in New Zealand. Parents (n = 291) of an autistic child completed an online survey that included temporal/demographic questions relating to the parent and child, and parent ratings of the child's core ASD symptoms, their parenting stress, and psychological well-being.…

Depression is a common comorbidity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little is known about risk factors for depression and depressive symptoms in this population. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has been used in the typically developing population to identify risk factors for depression, but has been rarely applied in ASD populations. In…

Investigated between-group differences in cognitive/affective theory of mind (ToM) and predictors of cognitive ToM both within broad autism phenotype/non (BAP/Non-BAP) groups as well as across the sample. The BAP group (n = 45) performed worse than the Non-BAP group (n = 102) on the unexpected outcomes test (UOT), but groups were similar regarding…

Previous studies have reported positive correlations between autistic traits and disordered eating, though it is unclear whether the association is moderated by sex/gender or whether it is independent of anxiety or depression. We present the findings of an online survey of 691 participants who completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), Hospital…

In this study, we examined trajectories of specific domains of behavior problems (i.e., attention problems, depression/anxiety, and aggressive behavior) from age 6 to 18 in a sample of 55 children with fragile X syndrome. We also examined autism status and early parenting as predictors of subsequent behavioral trajectories. We found that attention…

Exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs), and trauma related diagnoses are poorly understood in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and developmental disabilities (DD). The current study examined N = 7695 cases seen by a community mental health provider to compare exposure to PTEs and trauma-related diagnoses between children with ASD, children…