Abstract
Anxiety and threat bias were examined in 6-8-year-old children at familial-risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and low-risk (LR, n = 37) controls. The high-risk (HR) group was divided into those who met diagnostic criteria for ASD (HR-ASD, n = 15) and those who did not (HR-non ASD, n = 24). The HR-ASD group had highest levels of parent-reported anxiety. The HR-non ASD group exhibited increased threat bias on a spatial-cueing task, while the HR-ASD group did not. Anxiety symptoms were associated with both threat bias and ASD severity. These findings suggest that the mechanisms underlying anxiety in HR siblings without ASD are similar to those in non-ASD populations. However, among children with ASD, hypersensitivity to threat may not underlie anxiety symptoms.
Highlights
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit difficulties in social communication and relating, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and atypicalities in sensory modulation (DSM-5; American Psychological Association 2013)
Three children who had met diagnostic criteria for ASD at age 36 months no longer met criteria at age 7-years, these participants were removed from further analyses, leaving a HR-non ASD group of n = 24
The present study is the first to examine the association between attentional bias to threat, anxiety and ASD symptoms within the context of a high-risk for ASD sibling design
Summary
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit difficulties in social communication and relating, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and atypicalities in sensory modulation (DSM-5; American Psychological Association 2013). Prospective high-risk studies have reported that up to 20% of siblings meet diagnostic criteria for ASD and that there is increased ASD symptomatology among those that do not have the condition (Messinger et al 2013, 2015; Ozonoff et al 2011). Taken together, these findings suggest that there is high familial risk for ASD. Increased prevalence of anxiety is reported in first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD (Lainhart 2009), including young children at increased familial risk as siblings of probands with a diagnosis (Schwichtenberg et al 2013)
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