Circumscribed interests in autism: are there sex differences?

Advances in Autism, Ahead of Print. Purpose Sex differences in circumscribed interests (CI) may delay diagnosis for females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); therefore, it is important to characterize sex differences in CI to determine if differential approaches to diagnostic assessment are warranted for females with ASD. The purpose of this paper is to examine sex differences in parent-reported quantity, content and functional impairment of children ’s interests. Design/methodology/approach Parent responses to the Interests Scale were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVAs to determine diagnostic (ASD vs typical development (TD)) and sex differences between four groups of children ages six to ten years: ASD males, ASD females, TD males and TD females. Findings Groups were comparable on the quantity of interests reported on the Interests Scale. Children with ASD demonstrated significantly more nonsocial interests and had greater functional impairment associated with their interests than TD children. A significant diagnosis× sex effect was found for the number of interests in folk psychology. Descriptively, males with ASD were more likely to have a primary interest in the traditionally male category of physics than females with ASD whose primary interest mainly fell into the categories of TV or the more traditionally fe male category of psychology. Originality/value These findings strengthen the results of Turner-Brown et al. (2011) by replicating their fin...

Source: Advances in Autism - February 20, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research