自闭症和非自闭症儿童自闭症特征与家庭功能随时间的变化之间的关系

Leontine W ten Hoopen , Pieter FA de Nijs, Geerte Slappendel Jan van der Ende, Dennis Bastiaansen, Kirstin Greaves-Lord, Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen and Manon HJ Hillegers

To explore associations between autism traits and family functioning over time, we studied longitudinal data of a mixed group of 168 clinically referred autistic and non-autistic children. Cross-lagged models showed a significant association between fewer autism traits at the diagnostic assessment and better family functioning 1year later for the whole group, independently of children’s internalizing or externalizing behavior. When splitting the group into autistic children (58%) and non-autistic children (42%) based on an autism diagnosis, this association was only significant in the subgroup of non-autistic children with autism traits. We hypothesized that the needs of families experiencing difficulty understanding and adjusting to their children with autism traits, but no clinical autism diagnosis, might be unmet without the training or support facilities offered to families with autistic children. Although further research is needed to explore this association, clinicians may also consider supporting families of non-autistic children with autism traits to prevent family functioning problems. Because high autism trait levels in non-autistic children may be of a different origin than autism, for example, other neurodevelopmental or mental health problems, family training or support should be tailored to the child’s underlying difficulties

为了探索自闭症特征与家庭功能随时间的变化之间的关系，我们研究了168名临床转诊的自闭症和非自闭症儿童的混合群体的纵向数据。跨时滞模型显示，整个群体在诊断评估时自闭症特征较少，而1年后家庭功能较好，这与儿童的内化或外化行为无关。当根据自闭症诊断将群体分为自闭症儿童（58%）和非自闭症儿童（42%）时，这种关联仅在具有自闭症特征的非自闭症儿童亚群中显著。我们假设，如果不对患有自闭症儿童的家庭提供培训或支持设施，那么那些难以理解和适应患有自闭症特征但未被临床诊断为自闭症的儿童的需求可能无法得到满足。虽然需要进一步的研究来探索这种关联，但临床医生也可以考虑支持患有自闭症特征的非自闭症儿童的家庭，以防止家庭功能问题。由于非自闭症儿童的高自闭症特征水平可能与自闭症不同，例如其他神经发育或心理健康问题，因此应根据儿童的潜在困难量身定制家庭培训或支持。