Suicidality and Self-Harm in Autism Spectrum Conditions

2020 ◽  
pp. 348-368
Author(s):  
Jennifer N. Haddock ◽  
Louis P. Hagopian
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
General Population ◽  
Early Death ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Self Harm

Self-harm and suicidality in autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) have been underresearched. However, there is now convincing evidence that suicide is a leading cause of early death in the autistic community, and the prevalence of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal behaviors is significantly elevated in autistic children and adults compared to the general population and psychiatric groups. Less research is currently available exploring the reasons why (etiology), how to assess or measure self-harm and suicidality, or how to treat these difficulties in autistic people. This chapter will summarize existing evidence on this topic and provide recommendations for future research and clinical practice to improve understanding, assessment, and prevention of self-harm and suicidality in ASD.

scholarly journals Brief Report: The Broad Autism Phenotype in Swedish Parents of Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Conditions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bang ◽  
Maria Strömberg ◽  
Shoba S. Meera ◽  
Kajsa Igelström
Keyword(s):  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Genetic Load ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Broad Autism Phenotype ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Pragmatic Language ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Autism Phenotype

AbstractThe broad autism phenotype (BAP) is a set of characteristics often observed in typically developing people with a genetic load for autism, such as parents of autistic children. The Broad Autism Phenotypic Questionnaire (BAPQ) is a 36-item questionnaire developed to identify the BAP in first-degree relatives of autistic people. We translated the BAPQ into Swedish and examined its psychometric properties in a Swedish sample consisting of 45 parents of children with ASC and 74 parents of non-autistic children. We found support for the original 3-factor structure (aloof, pragmatic language and rigid), good internal consistency and convergent validity with the Autism Quotient. Thus, the Swedish BAPQ exhibits acceptable psychometric properties and may be useful for assessing the BAP in non-clinical populations.

Initial Evidence for Increased Weather Salience in Autism Spectrum Conditions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Bolton ◽  
William G. Blumberg ◽  
Lara K. Ault ◽  
H. Michael Mogil ◽  
Stacie H. Hanes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Physical Disability ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Weather Information ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Neurological Functioning ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Logical Rules ◽  
Attention To Detail

Weather is important to all people, including vulnerable populations (those whose circumstances include cognitive processing, hearing, or vision differences, physical disability, homelessness, and other scenarios and factors). Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect information-processing and areas of neurological functioning that potentially inhibit the reception of hazardous weather information, and is of particular concern for weather messengers. People on the autism spectrum tend to score highly in tests of systemizing, a psychological process that heavily entails attention to detail and revolves around the creation of logical rules to explain things that occur in the world. This article reports the results of three preliminary studies examining weather salience–psychological attention to weather–and its potential relationships with systemizing in autistic people. Initial findings suggest that enhanced weather salience exists among autistic individuals compared to those without the condition, and that this may be related to systemizing. These findings reveal some possible strategies for communicating weather to autistic populations and motivate future work on a conceptual model that blends systemizing and chaos theory to better understand weather salience.

scholarly journals Developmental trajectories of autistic social traits in the general population

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Richard Pender ◽  
Pasco Fearon ◽  
Beate St Pourcain ◽  
Jon Heron ◽  
Will Mandy
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Population Sample ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Communication Disorders ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Growth Mixture Modelling ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Social Difficulties ◽  
Autism Trait

Abstract Background Autistic people show diverse trajectories of autistic traits over time, a phenomenon labelled ‘chronogeneity’. For example, some show a decrease in symptoms, whilst others experience an intensification of difficulties. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a dimensional condition, representing one end of a trait continuum that extends throughout the population. To date, no studies have investigated chronogeneity across the full range of autistic traits. We investigated the nature and clinical significance of autism trait chronogeneity in a large, general population sample. Methods Autistic social/communication traits (ASTs) were measured in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children using the Social and Communication Disorders Checklist (SCDC) at ages 7, 10, 13 and 16 (N = 9744). We used Growth Mixture Modelling (GMM) to identify groups defined by their AST trajectories. Measures of ASD diagnosis, sex, IQ and mental health (internalising and externalising) were used to investigate external validity of the derived trajectory groups. Results The selected GMM model identified four AST trajectory groups: (i) Persistent High (2.3% of sample), (ii) Persistent Low (83.5%), (iii) Increasing (7.3%) and (iv) Decreasing (6.9%) trajectories. The Increasing group, in which females were a slight majority (53.2%), showed dramatic increases in SCDC scores during adolescence, accompanied by escalating internalising and externalising difficulties. Two-thirds (63.6%) of the Decreasing group were male. Conclusions Clinicians should note that for some young people autism-trait-like social difficulties first emerge during adolescence accompanied by problems with mood, anxiety, conduct and attention. A converse, majority-male group shows decreasing social difficulties during adolescence.

scholarly journals Coping Styles: A Better Understanding of Stress and Anxiety in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions Through Sport and Exercise Models

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Roncaglia
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Coping Styles ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Performance Psychology ◽  
Psychology Literature ◽  
Sport And Exercise ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Different Sources

The aim of this paper is to present an understanding of the coping mechanisms and coping styles adopted by individuals on the Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) by looking to draw parallels with sports performance psychology and how different sources of stress and anxiety can lead to the adoption of different coping styles. Firstly, an overview of current understanding of what constitute a stressor and how this can affect an individual is presented from sport and exercise psychology literature. Secondly, a model of coping styles is illustrated with the aim to shed light at how different perceptions of levels of stress and anxiety are managed both on an individual and group level. Thirdly, within the context of this understanding, some examples about how to support individuals on the ASC will be illustrated. Finally, implications for future research and reflection will be presented by highlighting the importance of teaching and learning coping and tolerance skills as part of a comprehensive and holistic psycho-educational program.

Shorter average look durations to dynamic social stimuli are associated with higher levels of autism symptoms in young autistic children

Autism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136236132110564
Author(s):  
Samantha Major ◽  
Dmitry Isaev ◽  
Jordan Grapel ◽  
Todd Calnan ◽  
Elena Tenenbaum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Information ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
Autism Symptoms ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Dynamic Stimulus ◽  
Clinical Measures

Prior eye-tracking studies involving autistic individuals have focused on total looking time or proportion of looking time to key regions of interest. These studies have not examined another important feature, the ability to sustain attention to stimuli. In particular, the ability to sustain attention to a dynamic social stimulus might reflect more advanced self-regulatory skills that may enhance engagement with and comprehension of social information. In a sample of 155 autistic children (2–8 years of age), we examined children’s average look duration while they viewed a complex, dynamic stimulus containing both social and nonsocial elements. After accounting for children’s age and intelligence quotient, we found that shorter average look duration was associated with increased autism spectrum disorder severity across multiple clinical measures. To calculate average look duration, we divided the length of total looking time in seconds by the total number of uninterrupted looks to the video media. Thus, the ability to sustain attention while viewing complex dynamic information could be important for comprehending dynamic social information. Lay Abstract Many studies of autism look at the differences in how autistic research participants look at certain types of images. These studies often focus on where research participants are looking within the image, but that does not tell us everything about how much they are paying attention. It could be useful to know more about how well autistic research participants can focus on an image with people in it, because those who can look at images of people for longer duration without stopping may be able to easily learn other skills that help them to interact with people. We measured how long autistic research participants watched the video without breaking their attention. The video sometimes had a person speaking, and at other times had toys moving and making sounds. We measured the typical amount of time autistic research participants could look at the video before they looked away. We found that research participants with more severe autism tended to look at the video for shorter amounts of time. The ability to focus without stopping may be related to social skills in autistic people.

Improving visual perspective-taking performance in children with autism spectrum conditions: Effects of embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation strategies

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136236132094935
Author(s):  
Pingping Ni ◽  
Lingfeng Xue ◽  
Jiajing Cai ◽  
Minjie Wen ◽  
Jie He
Keyword(s):  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Visual Perspective ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Visual Perspective Taking ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Embodied Self ◽  
Rotation Strategy

Visual perspective-taking is the ability to perceive the world from another person’s perspective, and research on visual perspective-taking ability in children with autism spectrum conditions yielded inconsistent results. To solve a visual perspective-taking task, people can mentally rotate themselves to another person’s location (embodied self-rotation strategy) or else rotate the object toward themselves (object-based mental rotation strategy). Previous interventions for autistic individuals have mainly focused on embodied self-rotation strategy, the visual perspective-taking mechanism in neurotypicals. This study examined the effects of both embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation strategies in improving visual perspective-taking performance in 34 autistic children and 34 ability-matched neurotypical children. All children completed three tasks: one measuring baseline visual perspective-taking performance, while the other two measuring visual perspective-taking performance after instructions in embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation strategies. The results indicated that autistic children had difficulty in baseline visual perspective-taking tasks. After a brief strategy learning period, autistic children benefited similarly from both embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation instructions, suggesting that there are various possible ways to improving autistic children’s perspective taking, and that further interventions for autistic children could consider combining different strategies that better suit their autistic traits. Lay abstract When answering how the same object might appear to others in different locations, people can provide answers by mentally putting themselves into another person’s location using the embodied self-rotation strategy or by rotating the target object toward themselves using the object-based mental rotation strategy. In this study, after learning the embodied self-rotation or object-based mental rotation strategies, autistic children improved their visual perspective-taking performance, which is believed to be impaired or delayed in autistic individuals. We recruited 34 autistic children and an equal number of ability-matched typical children and examined their visual perspective-taking performance at baseline and after learning the embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation strategies. As previous visual perspective-taking and other social cognition interventions for autistic individuals have primarily focused on the embodied self-rotation strategy, showing moderate effectiveness and limited generalizability, we explored the effects of both embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation strategies for improving perspective-taking performance and discussed their implications in this study. The results showed that autistic children had a lower performance at baseline compared with typical children; however, they were still sensitive to both embodied self-rotation and object-based mental rotation strategies. Unlike typical children, who gained more from the embodied self-rotation strategy, autistic children benefited similarly from the two strategies. This suggests that there are multiple ways to helping autistic children overcome their difficulty in perspective-taking tasks. Future interventions for autistic children could consider combining various strategies that better suit their autistic traits.

Violent Fantasies in Young Men With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Dangerous or Miserable Misfits? Duty to Protect Whom?

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
pp. 959-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark T. Palermo ◽  
Stefan Bogaerts
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Clinical Approach ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Pornography Use ◽  
Self Harm ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Duty To Protect ◽  
Violent Ideation ◽  
First Person Shooter

Predictability of dangerousness in association with mental disorders remains elusive, outside of a few relatively well-established risk factors for the prognostication of violence, such as male sex, the presence of a psychotic disorder, and comorbid substance abuse. In clinical practice, inquiry into the presence of aggressive or violent ideation, in the form of ideas of homicide or suicide, is part of a standard mental status examination. Nonetheless, fantasy life, when it concerns harm toward others, may not be as reliable an indicator of imminent danger as it may be in the case of self-harm. Five cases of young Italian men with Asperger syndrome and recurrent and extremely violent femicide fantasies are presented. While there is no direct correlation between autism spectrum conditions and violence, as other humans, persons with an autistic condition are capable of committing crimes, including homicide. All five had in common a number of characteristics and behaviors felt to be pathoplastic: All had been bullied, all had been romantically rejected, all were long-standing First Person Shooter (FPS) game players, and all were avid violent pornography consumers. The potential for an actual neurocognitive impact of violent video games, well documented in the literature, and its combination with personal life history and chronic habituation following long-standing violent pornography use is discussed in the context of social and emotional vulnerabilities. While aggressive fantasies cannot and should not be underestimated, in countries where duty to protect legislation does not exist, a clinical approach is imperative, as, incidentally, should be anywhere.

scholarly journals Development and Validation of the Suicide Behaviours Questionnaire – Autism Spectrum Conditions in Autistic, Possibly Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cassidy ◽  
Louise Bradley ◽  
Heather Cogger-Ward ◽  
Jacqui Rodgers
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Measurement Properties ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Autistic Adults ◽  
Development And Validation

Abstract Background: Autistic people and those with high autistic traits are at high risk of experiencing suicidality. Yet, there are no suicidality assessment tools developed or validated for these groups.Methods: A widely used and validated suicidality assessment tool developed for the general population (SBQ-R), was adapted using feedback from autistic adults. The adapted tool was refined through 9 interviews, and an online survey with 251 autistic adults, to establish clarity and relevance of the items. Subsequently, 308 autistic, 113 possibly autistic, and 268 non-autistic adults completed the adapted tool online, alongside self-report measures of autistic traits (AQ), camouflaging autistic traits (CAT-Q), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (ASA-A), thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness (INQ-15), lifetime non-suicidal self-injury, and the original version of the suicidality assessment tool (SBQ-R). Analyses explored the appropriateness and measurement properties of the adapted tool between the groups.Results: There was evidence in support of content validity, structural validity, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity, test retest validity, sensitivity and specificity (for distinguishing those with or without lifetime experience of suicide attempt), and hypothesis testing of the adapted tool (SBQ-ASC) in each group. The structure of the SBQ-ASC was equivalent between autistic and possibly autistic adults, regardless of gender, or use of visual aids to help quantify abstract rating scales.Limitations: The samples involved in the development and validation of the adapted tool were largely female, and largely diagnosed as autistic in adulthood, which is not representative of the wider autistic population. The SBQ-ASC has been developed for use in research and is not recommended to assess risk of future suicide attempts and/or self-harm.Conclusions: The SBQ-ASC is a brief self-report suicidality assessment tool, developed and validated with and for autistic adults, without co-occurring intellectual disability. The SBQ-ASC is appropriate for use in research to identify suicidal thoughts and behaviours in autistic and possibly autistic people, and model associations with risk and protective factors.

scholarly journals Development and Psychometric Properties of a New Questionnaire to Assess Mental Health and Concerning Behaviors in Children and Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): The Assessment of Concerning Behavior (ACB) Scale

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Tarver ◽  
Silia Vitoratou ◽  
Mathilde Mastroianni ◽  
Natalie Heaney ◽  
Eleanor Bennett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Abstract Although 70% of autistic children and young people meet criteria for co-occurring psychiatric conditions, there are few screening measures specifically for autistic individuals. We describe the development and validation of the Assessment of Concerning Behavior (ACB), an instrument co-developed with the autistic community to assess mental health and problematic/risky behaviors. Items include descriptions to facilitate symptom recognition by autistic people, and carers/professionals. The ACB was completed by 255 parents, 149 autistic children and young people and 30 teachers. Internal consistency, stability and validity was assessed. The ACB parent-version fit a two-factor model (internalizing and externalizing problems) and showed adequate test–retest reliability, internal consistency and construct validity. The ACB is a promising new measure for research and clinical use in autism.

Variables predicting the association between autistic traits and externalizing symptoms among young adults

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Álvarez-Couto ◽  
Domingo García-Villamisar ◽  
Gema P. Sáez-Suanes ◽  
María d'Orey Roquete
Keyword(s):  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Externalizing Symptoms ◽  
Externalizing Disorders ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Problematic Behaviors ◽  
Self Harm ◽  
Regulation Strategies

Purpose Considering the high comorbidity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with externalizing disorders and that ASD is considered as a continuum, which implies the identification of it features in the whole population, the purpose of this paper is to know the characteristics of the association of externalizing symptoms in the population with ASD traits. Design/methodology/approach One hundred and seventeen postsecondary students participated in the study, providing responses to a battery of self-reported tests. Findings The existence of a significant association between ASD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (0.519; p < 0.01) was proved. Regression analyses showed that problems in executive functioning, working memory deficits and difficulties in the use of emotion regulation strategies predicted the presence of ADHD traits (F = 36.757, R2 = 62.3%, p < 0. 01) and impulsivity behavior (F = 18.249, R2 = 45.1%, p < 0.01). Research limitations/implications Externalizing symptomatology in people with higher ASD traits is extended to the general population. Future research should study other problematic behaviors, such as aggression or self-harm, to continue generating appropriate interventions. Originality/value The results reported reinforce the study of ASD as a dimensional disorder, in line with the latest advances in the classification of psychopathology. Considering which variables are behind the problematic behaviors allows interventions to be focused on these factors, contributing to their reduction and to the improvement of professional practices.

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