The current study characterized the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders on adolescents' internalizing symptoms and assessed predictors of adolescents' internalizing symptoms during the pandemic. Seventy-nine adolescents (18 autistic, 61 nonautistic) and their parents who participated in a previous study and were at least 10…

Suicidal thoughts and behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury are more common in autistic adolescents than non-autistic adolescents, per parent- and self-report. Clinician-rated measures of suicide risk (e.g. Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale) have not been investigated with autistic youth despite high parent-child rating discrepancies. In the…

Mental health problems are prevalent in autistic youth, but the underpinning mechanisms are not well explored. In neurotypical youth, stressful life events are an established risk factor for mental health problems. This study tested longitudinal bidirectional associations between family-level stressful life events and mental health problems and…

Background: The rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has transformed the Australian funding landscape for individuals with disability and their families. This study examined whether the profiles of autistic children and their families accessing an early intervention (EI) setting have changed following its introduction.…

Prevalence rates of depression are higher in autistic youth than neurotypical peers, yet the effects of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and sex on depressive symptom severity remain incompletely understood, particularly in specific age groups. Using the Children's Depression Inventory, Second Edition, this study explored diagnostic- and…

High alexithymic traits and psychiatric comorbidities such as depression and social phobia are frequently observed among adults with autism spectrum disorder. In this study, we tested whether alexithymic and/or autistic traits are risk factors for depressive and social phobic symptoms in adults with autism spectrum disorder (n = 122), patients…

Autistic adults commonly experience anxiety and depression. These mental health concerns are often tied to social experiences, such that mental well-being can be supported by social connection and deteriorated by loneliness. The mediating role of social and emotional loneliness (i.e. social isolation and lack of emotional attachment, respectively)…

The development of an expressive language score for people with autism based on the ADOS-2 was recently reported by Mazurek et al. (2019). The current study examined the construct validity of the ADOS-2 expressive language score (ELS) in a sample of adolescents with fragile X syndrome (n = 45, 10 girls), a neurodevelopmental disorder with high…

The associations between sons' challenging behaviour and mothers' anxiety and depression were investigated in four age-subgroups of boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their mothers (n = 49). Significant correlations were found only for the 6-yr-old boys' irritability and their mothers' anxiety (r = 0.808) and depression (r = 0.762), and for…

Longitudinal data on the functioning of adults referred for possible autism as children are sparse and possibly different from datasets consisting of adult clinical referrals. A total of 123 young adults, mean age of 26, referred for neurodevelopmental disorders in early childhood were categorized into three outcome groups: autism spectrum…

Insomnia subtypes have not been characterized in severely affected youth with autism spectrum disorder. We examined indices of clinical impairment (i.e. length of hospital stay, autism severity, nonverbal intelligence quotient, and adaptive and maladaptive behaviors) across insomnia subtypes in 427 psychiatrically hospitalized children with autism…

In adults with autism spectrum disorder, co-occurring psychiatric conditions are prevalent, and depression is one of the most common co-occurring disorders. This study examined the relationship between depression and cognitive ability, autism symptom severity, and self-reported social impairments in autism spectrum disorder. A total of 33 adults…

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder frequently experience social communication difficulties, executive functioning deficits, and anxiety and depressive symptoms, which are similar to the symptoms and correlates of sluggish cognitive tempo. Although sluggish cognitive tempo is related to, but distinct from, the inattentive and…

This investigation examined the consequences and effects of the severity of mothers psychosocial functioning as assessed by measures parenting stress and depression in a randomised control trial of a Relationship-based Intervention (RBI) called Responsive Teaching (RT). The sample included 28 parents and preschool aged children with Autism from…

In this second of two primary papers, we examined moderators of treatment effects for younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders whose parents were taught to use a parent-implemented intervention called "Improving Parents As Communication Teachers". Investigators randomized 97 high-risk siblings and their primary parent…