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Purpose: Caring for an autistic child is associated with elevated stress, anxiety and depression. Although some data suggest that 'child' or 'carer' factors may moderate the severity of carer distress, relatively few international comparisons have been made, limiting the generalizability of previous findings. This study aimed to address this issue. Method: A survey-based comparison was made of carers from three nations (Australia, Denmark, Greece), and the effects of demographic, child, and carer variables upon carer anxiety and depression were investigated. Results: Only limited cross-nation consistency was found for nation, child, or carer variables and their effects upon carer anxiety or depression. Conclusion: The application of universal treatment models for carer anxiety and depression may be of differing value across nations.

The experience of being bullied is widespread among autistic youth. Relatively little empirical work has been done on the relationship between the bullying of these youth and school refusal (SR). This study of 67 school-age autistic boys (M = 11.7 years, SD = 2.3 years) examined several factors that may contribute to SR. Data regarding boys' age, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder (MDD), key ASD diagnostic criteria, and frequency of being bullied were collected. Results indicated that, while boys displaying emerging SR also had significantly higher GAD and MDD than boys without emerging SR, only the frequency of being bullied made a significant contribution to emerging SR. Implications for prevention and treatment of SR among autistic youth are discussed.

The efficacy of delivering autism-focused Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA) training within a six-session professional development (PD) framework was investigated with 23 Australian educators. FBA knowledge, self-efficacy (SE), and confidence were measured pre-to-post-PD series as markers of educator ability to address the challenging behaviours associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A significant relationship was found between confidence, SE, and overall performance in various aspects of the educator's job role. These results suggest that this form of PD may be used to train educators in the skills necessary to improve both their own working experience and their students' learning opportunities.

Background: The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) characteristic of difficulties in social communication and interaction has been previously associated with elevated anxiety and the degree of mental effort required to understand and respond to social cues. These associations have implications for the mental health of autistic youth, but they are usually based on correlational statistics between measures of anxiety and social interaction demands that are collected in formal psychological testing settings. Another index of mental effort that has been found to correlate with anxious arousal is gamma wave activity, which is measured via EEG. Methods: To compare data from both of these indicators of mental effort and anxiety, a two-stage study was conducted using (1) standardized test data and (2) in vivo EEG data in a low-demand social setting. Results: As well as significant associations between social cognition and anxiety from standardized scales, there were also meaningful relationships between social cognition and gamma wave activity. Conclusions: Because gamma wave activity represents the highest level of cognitive complexity for brain activity, is an index of hypervigilance under threatening conditions, and has been associated with anxiety in autistic youth, these findings suggest that even low-level demand social interaction settings may initiate high-level anxiety-related behaviour in autistic youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer (PCa) patients often also suffer from comorbid anxiety, which can impede treatment efficacy as well as be intrinsically unpleasant. Identification of the associations between particular symptoms of anxiety that are most likely to occur at different points in the PCa diagnosis–treatment journey can inform anxiety treatment choices and potentially influence their overall treatment outcomes. Although simple correlational analyses and ANOVA models of data analysis have been used to address this issue, the possibility of confounds due to the inter-relationships between other anxiety symptoms argues for the use of network analysis, which calculates each symptom–symptom connection while also taking into account the entire range of symptom relationships. Responses to the GAD-10 self-report scale for Generalised Anxiety Disorder were collected from 415 PCa patients who were grouped according to whether (1) their PCa was just diagnosed and undergoing initial treatment; (2) their cancer was in remission; or (3) their cancer was recurring after initial treatment. The results of the network analysis indicated several areas where clinically relevant differences were present between the three PCa groups, but caution was applied to the results of statistical tests due to unequal sample sizes. Individual GAD symptom–symptom association differences are discussed in terms of their implications for directed and individualised anxiety-management treatment models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate possible correlates of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in young males with ASD, a test of the mediation effects of sensory features (SF) upon the association between ASD symptoms and GAD was conducted with 150 males aged 6 to 18 years. GAD data were obtained from parents of the boys and from the boys themselves; SF and ASD data were obtained from parents. Symptoms of ASD were found to influence elevated levels of parent-rated GAD indirectly through greater levels of sensory avoiding, and auditory-specific sensory behaviours correlated with parent-rated anxiety more strongly than other sensory modalities. There were no significant effects for the boys' self-rated GAD.

Previous data have suggested that parents of boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may rate their sons' generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) more severely than the boys do themselves. However, no reports have been published to date which examine this issue in a girls-only sample. This study investigated the extent and nature of mother-daughter agreement on ratings of GAD in a sample of 53 girls with an ASD with mild impairment, aged 6 to 17 years. Mothers rated their daughters' GAD more severely than the girls did themselves, despite confounding effects from the girls' medication and menarche status. Suggestions are made for the valid assessment of GAD in girls with an ASD.

The associations between sons' challenging behaviour and mothers' anxiety and depression were investigated in four age-subgroups of boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their mothers (n = 49). Significant correlations were found only for the 6-yr-old boys' irritability and their mothers' anxiety (r = 0.808) and depression (r = 0.762), and for the 7-yr-old boys' stereotypy and their mothers' depression (r = 0.745). MANOVA and ANOVA found no significant differences between the irritability of the 6-yr-old boys and that of the remaining boys, nor between the 7-yr-olds' stereotypy and the remaining boys, plus no significant difference in the mothers' anxiety and depression scores across age groups. Implications are drawn for counselling and psychotherapy.

To determine if diagnostic severity of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affected sex differences in the detailed ASD-related behavioural profiles of young males and female, two samples of males and females with a diagnosis of ASD, aged between 6 and 17 years, were compared across the 65 items of the Social Responsiveness Scale (2nd ed.). Results are reported for a sample of males and females matched on age and IQ (n = 51 pairs) and a smaller sample matched on age, IQ and ADOS-2 severity (n = 32 pairs). ASD-related behaviours from the SRS-2 that were significantly and meaningfully different across sexes were identified for both samples. ADOS-2 diagnostic severity was associated with different sets of sex-based differences in SRS-2 item scores.

Background/Objectives: Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relies on the observation of difficulties in social communication and interaction, plus the presence of repetitive and restrictive behaviors. The identification of neurological correlates of these symptoms remains a high priority for clinical research, and has the potential to increase the validity of diagnosis of ASD as well as provide greater understanding of how the autistic brain functions. This study focused on two neurological phenomena that have been previously associated with psychiatric disorders (alpha- and theta-wave asymmetry across the frontal region of the brain), and tested for their association with the major diagnostic criteria for ASD. Methods: A total of 41 male autistic youth underwent assessment with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2) and 3 min of eyes-closed resting EEG to collect alpha- and theta-wave data from right and left frontal brain sites. Results: Different associations were found for theta versus alpha asymmetry and the ADOS-2 subscales, across different brain regions responsible for a varying range of cognitive functions. In general, theta asymmetry was associated with conversation with others, sharing of enjoyment, and making social overtures, whereas alpha asymmetry was linked with making eye contact, reporting events to others, and engaging in reciprocal social communication. Specific brain regions involved are identified, as well as implications for clinical practice. Conclusions: Specific autism symptoms may be associated with selected brain region activity, providing a neurological basis for diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological resilience (PR) is known to be inversely associated with depression. While there is a growing body of research examining how depression alters activity across multiple functional neural networks, how differences in PR affect these networks is largely unexplored. This study examines the relationship between PR and functional connectivity in the alpha and beta bands within (and between) eighteen established cortical nodes in the default mode network, the central executive network, and the salience network. Resting-state EEG data from 99 adult participants (32 depressed, 67 non-depressed) were used to measure the correlation between the five factors of PR sourced from the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale and eLORETA-based measures of coherence and phase synchronisation. Distinct functional connectivity patterns were seen across each resilience factor, with a notable absence of overlapping positive results across the depressed and non-depressed samples. These results indicate that depression may modulate how resilience is expressed in terms of fundamental neural activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melancholia is a major and severe subtype of depression, with only limited data regarding its association with neurological phenomena. To extend the current understanding of how particular aspects of melancholia are correlated with brain activity, electroencephalographic data were collected from 100 adults (44 males and 56 females, all aged 18 y or more) and investigated for the association between symptoms of melancholia and the ratios of alpha/beta activity and theta/beta activity at parietal–occipital EEG sites PO1 and PO2. The results indicate differences in these associations according to the depressive status of participants and the particular symptom of melancholia. Depressed participants exhibited meaningfully direct correlations between alpha/beta and theta/beta activity and the feeling that "Others would be better off if I was dead" at PO1, whereas non-depressed participants had significant inverse correlations between theta/beta activity and "Feeling useless and not needed" and "I find it hard to make decisions" at PO1. The results are discussed in terms of the relative levels of fast-wave (beta) versus slow-wave (alpha, theta) activity exhibited by depressed and non-depressed participants in the parietal–occipital region and the cognitive activities that are relevant to that region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The validity, reliability and factor structure of the Autism Spectrum Disorder Behaviour Checklist-Revised (ASDBC-R) were measured in a sample of 140 boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) aged between 6 and 18 years. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was satisfactory and the ASDBC-R significantly correlated with the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Factor analysis of the ASDBC-R revealed a five-factor solution, which included all of the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for ASD but with considerable overlap across criteria and factors. Agreement between ASDBC-R factors and SRS subscales was significant for three ASDBC-R factors but only marginal for the remaining two factors. Results indicated that the ASDBC-R could be used to develop targeted behavioural treatment plans for children with ASD across a range of settings, thus improving the development of individualised interventions for children with ASD.