Autism Through the Ages: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding How Age and Age of Diagnosis Affect Quality of Life

Atherton, Gray; Edisbury, Emma; Piovesan, Andrea

doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05235-x

Cited by 32 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…In conclusion, autistic adult populations are more susceptible to mental health issues that reduce wellbeing (Atherton et al, 2021), which animal contact may improve (McConnell et al, 2019). Our study shows that pet ownershipis related to higher quality of life in all people, but pet attachment is specifically related to better mental health in autistic adults.…”

Section: Discussion Studymentioning

confidence: 60%

‘They ask no questions and pass no criticism’: A mixed-methods study exploring pet ownership in autism

Atherton

Edisbury

Piovesan

et al. 2022

J Autism Dev Disord

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Many autistic people cite a strong attachment to animals, and some studies suggest they may even show a bias towards animals over people. This mixed-methods study explored companion animal attachment in the adult autistic community. In a quantitative study with 735 people, we found that autistic adults were equally attached to their pets as neurotypicals but were less likely to own them, even though pet ownership corresponded with better mental health outcomes. Substituting pets for people also served as a compensatory mechanism for social contact in the autistic sample. In a second qualitative study, we explored the lived experiences of 16 autistic pet owners. The interpretive phenomenological analysis highlighted the benefits and the barriers to animal companionship. Together these mixed methods findings underline how pets improve the lives of their autistic owners. We conclude with specific recommendations for increasing animal companionship opportunities for autistic adults.

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Section: Discussion Studymentioning

confidence: 60%

‘They ask no questions and pass no criticism’: A mixed-methods study exploring pet ownership in autism

Atherton

Edisbury

Piovesan

et al. 2022

J Autism Dev Disord

Self Cite

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“…Cluster #10 is also the most internally homogeneous cluster out of all major clusters. Contributing papers in this cluster discuss the developmental trajectory of ASD from diagnosis to adulthood [ 193 , 194 , 195 ], as well as the unique issues faced in early childhood [ 196 , 197 , 198 ] to the intersection between ASD and other health and social conditions in adulthood [ 199 , 200 , 201 ]. A major cited reference in this cluster, with a citation frequency of 100, dealt with the psychiatric co-morbidities of ASD in childhood [ 202 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Developments in Autism Genetic Research: A Scientometric Review from 2018 to 2022

Lim

Carollo

Dimitriou³

et al. 2022

Genes

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Genetic research in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has progressed tremendously in recent decades. Dozens of genetic loci and hundreds of alterations in the genetic sequence, expression, epigenetic transformation, and interactions with other physiological and environmental systems have been found to increase the likelihood of developing ASD. There is therefore a need to represent this wide-ranging yet voluminous body of literature in a systematic manner so that this information can be synthesised and understood at a macro level. Therefore, this study made use of scientometric methods, particularly document co-citation analysis (DCA), to systematically review literature on ASD genetic research from 2018 to 2022. A total of 14,818 articles were extracted from Scopus and analyzed with CiteSpace. An optimized DCA analysis revealed that recent literature on ASD genetic research can be broadly organised into 12 major clusters representing various sub-topics. These clusters are briefly described in the manuscript and potential applications of this study are discussed.

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“…While sex differences of ∼4:1 male:female ratio are consistently reported, there is also evidence that at least some proportion of diagnostic differences by sex could be due to under‐recognition and misdiagnosis in females (Halladay et al., 2015 ; Whitlock et al., 2020 ). Such delays or misses in turn may have negative impacts on other emotional, academic, and lifecourse outcomes (Atherton et al., 2021 ). Though debated (Fombonne, 2020 ), there have also been suggestions in the literature of differences in presentation and ‘camouflaging’ of ASD symptoms and social deficits in females (Corbett et al., 2021 ; Green et al., 2019 ), which could relate to our finding of possible compromises in assessment of phenotype in females with the short version.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining shortened versions of the Social Responsiveness Scale for use in autism spectrum disorder prediction and as a quantitative trait measure: Results from a validation study of 3–5 year old children

et al. 2022

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Background The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is a 65‐item measure yielding a continuous score capturing autism‐related traits. Scores based on SRS item subsets have been analytically examined but administration of shortened versions has not been evaluated prospectively. Objective The goal of this study was to compare psychometric properties of two shortened versions of the SRS to the full 65‐item SRS, in young children from both a clinical and general population setting. Methods Study participants (aged 3–5 years) were drawn from the AJ Drexel Autism Institute clinic (n = 154) and Kaiser Permanente Northern California (n = 201) and block randomized to receive either the 16‐item short SRS, a newly developed computer adaptive testing‐SRS, or the published full‐length SRS. Total scores across the three SRS administration methods were scaled to facilitate comparisons. Scores were plotted to assess distributional properties, while Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis was used to estimate Area Under the Curve (AUC) and address predictive ability. Results Overall, distributional properties of the three administration methods were highly comparable, with shortened measures demonstrating similar ability to capture the range of the distribution and case non‐case separation as the full SRS. In addition, AUC values were high (0.91–0.97) and comparable across the administration methods, though there was evidence of difference in predictive ability across measures for females (AUC for full SRS = 0.99 vs. 0.84 for short). Within individual comparisons of short versus full scores (available only for participants at the general population site) suggested underestimation of actual full SRS scores with the CAT‐SRS. Conclusions Our findings broadly support the construct validity and performance of shortened SRS versions examined here, though the full measure may be needed to more accurately assess traits consistent with ASD diagnosis in females. This work suggests opportunities for collection of ASD‐related phenotype in settings where participant burden or feasibility considerations may have otherwise prohibited such measurement.

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Autism Through the Ages: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding How Age and Age of Diagnosis Affect Quality of Life

Cited by 32 publications

References 88 publications

‘They ask no questions and pass no criticism’: A mixed-methods study exploring pet ownership in autism

‘They ask no questions and pass no criticism’: A mixed-methods study exploring pet ownership in autism

Recent Developments in Autism Genetic Research: A Scientometric Review from 2018 to 2022

Examining shortened versions of the Social Responsiveness Scale for use in autism spectrum disorder prediction and as a quantitative trait measure: Results from a validation study of 3–5 year old children

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