Associations of age, anxiety, cognitive functioning, and social impairment with aggression in youth with autism

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious research has indicated that aggression in children with autism is associated with cognitive functioning, age, anxiety, and social functioning, although most samples only include parent-report measures and participants without intellectual disability. Furthermore, there is a lack of research investigating how different aspects of social impairment are associated with aggressive behaviour in youth with autism while anxiety is included in the analyses. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationships of these variables with aggression in a large sample, diverse in age and cognitive level, using both parent- and teacher-report measures. MethodParticipants were 1179 youth (age 4–18) with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, from the SFARI database. Parent- and teacher-report measures were obtained for aggression, anxiety, and social impairment. Univariate statistics were calculated to determine how each variable was associated with aggression and hierarchical regressions were conducted with all variables together. ResultsAge and intellectual disability presence/severity had small positive relationships with teacher-measured aggression while anxiety and social impairment severity had strong relationships with aggression when rated by both parents and teachers. In a regression analysis, anxiety and social communication problems had the strongest positive relationships with aggression while social motivation problems had a negative relationship with aggression. ConclusionThese results indicate the importance of anxiety and social problems, particularly in social communication and motivation, when studying and treating aggression in youth with autism.