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…

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…

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…

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…

Adults with autism spectrum disorder often experience co-occurring mental health problems such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity-disorder, as well as impairments in executive function. Sluggish cognitive tempo, a cluster of behaviors including slow processing, daydreaming, and mental fogginess, has been shown to be associated with…

Many children with autism spectrum disorder display challenging behaviors. These behaviors are not limited to those with cognitive and/or language impairments. The Collaborative and Proactive Solutions framework proposes that challenging behaviors result from an incompatibility between environmental demands and a child's "lagging…

Autistic traits are associated with frequent psychological distress, suicidal ideation, and everyday functional challenges. These associations may be especially prominent in women. Some women with autistic traits "camouflage" feelings of awkwardness in typical social situations by effortfully engaging in expected social behaviors. We…

Mothers of children with autism report higher levels of depression than mothers of children with other developmental disabilities. We explored the relations between child characteristics of diagnostic severity and problem behaviors, parenting stress, relationship quality, and depressive symptoms in 70 mothers of young children with autism. We…

Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with emotional problems such as anxiety and depression (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A recent study of the "Child Behavior Checklist 6-18" (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) indicated good sensitivity but relatively low specificity for identifying emotional problems…

In a sample of 50 verbally fluent adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders (age: 16-31 years; verbal IQ: 72-140), we examined the pattern of response and associations between scores on common measures of depressive symptoms, participant characteristics, and clinical diagnosis of depressive disorders. Beck Depression Inventory--Second…