Plasma levels of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis hormones beta-endorphin (BE), adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH), and cortisol were measured in autistic (N = 48), mentally retarded/cognitively impaired (MR/CI, N = 16), and normal control (N = 26) individuals. Comparison of log transformed data from the three groups revealed that levels of BE and ACTH were significantly higher (p < .05) in the autistic individuals than in normal controls. The higher means in the autistic group were due to significantly higher plasma levels of BE and ACTH, indices of acute stress response, in the more severely affected individuals. The data support the idea that individuals with severe autism have a heightened response to acute stressors rather than chronic hyperarousal or elevated basal stress response system functioning.

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Fifty-seven children were seen, in interaction with their mothers, at 12 months and again at 18 months of age. The observational sessions included a teachinglearning task in which aspects of the mother's teaching style and the child's task orientation could be assessed. In addition, assessments were made at both ages of two dispositional attributes: "difficultness" and activity level. It was found that at 12 months, there was little or no relationship between the mother's teaching behavior and the child's task orientation, but by 18 months, significant correlations had appeared, indicating the development of coordination between the pair in their teaching-learning functions. Maternal teaching and child task orientation were also essentially unrelated to the children's more general dispositions at 12 months, but by 18 months, the mother's teaching effort was related to whether her child was difficult or easygoing. Evidence was presented for mutual influence between mother and child over the 6-month interval from 12 to 18 months. Specifically, the mothers of difficult 12-month-old boys reduced their teaching effort subsequently, and the sons of mothers who exerted high teaching effort at 12 months became less difficult during the subsequent 6 months. The relationships for girls were different and nonsignificant. The implications of the sex differences are discussed.

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