ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0495-9054
Current Organisation
Marquette University
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-10-2017
DOI: 10.1007/S10803-017-3322-Y
Abstract: Symptoms of anxiety add significant burden to many autistic in iduals and their loved ones. There is an urgent need for better understanding of the unique underlying mechanisms of anxiety in ASD, and for the development of more specific assessment methods and treatment recommendations. This special issue brings together 24 articles grouped into three themes mechanisms, measurement, and intervention. The result is a review of current anxiety research in ASD that is both broad and deep. Key themes include recognition of the importance in idual differences in aetiology and presentation of anxiety in ASD, the need for a more nuanced understanding of the interactions between anxiety and characteristics of ASD and the need to develop appropriately adapted treatments.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 19-12-2019
Abstract: Anxiety is common in autism spectrum disorder. Many anxiety symptoms in autism spectrum disorder are consistent with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.) anxiety disorders (termed “common” anxieties), but others may be qualitatively different, likely relating to autism spectrum disorder traits (herein termed “autism-related” anxieties). To date, few studies have examined both “common” and “autism-related” anxiety experiences in autism spectrum disorder. We explored caregiver-reported Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale-Parent version data from a multi-site (United Kingdom, Singapore, and United States) pooled database of 870 6- to 18-year-old participants with autism spectrum disorder, of whom 287 provided at least one written response to the optional open-ended Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale-Parent item 39 (“ Is there anything else your child is afraid of?”). Responses were thematically coded to explore (a) common and autism-related anxiety presentations and (b) their relationship with young people’s characteristics. Nearly half of the responses were autism-related anxieties (mostly sensory, uncommon, or idiosyncratic specific phobias and worries about change and unpredictability). The other half described additional common anxieties not covered in the original measure (mostly social, weather and environmental disasters, and animals). Caregivers of participants who were more severely affected by autism spectrum disorder symptoms reported more autism-related, as compared to common, additional anxieties. Implications for the assessment and understanding of anxiety in autism are discussed.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-06-2017
DOI: 10.1002/AUR.1809
Abstract: Anxiety-related difficulties are common in ASD, but measuring anxiety reliably and validly is challenging. Despite an increasing number of studies, there is no clear agreement on which existing anxiety measure is more psychometrically sound and what is the factor structure of anxiety in ASD. The present study examined the internal consistency, convergent, ergent, and discriminant validity, as well as the factor structure of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale-Parent Version (SCAS-P), in a large international pooled s le of 870 caregivers of youth with ASD from 12 studies in the United Kingdom, United States, and Singapore who completed the SCAS-P. Most were community recruited, while the majority had at least one measure of ASD symptomatology and either cognitive or adaptive functioning measures completed. Existing SCAS-P total scale and subscales had excellent internal consistency and good convergent, ergent and discriminant validity similar to or better than SCAS-P properties reported in typically developing children, except for the poorer internal consistency of the physical injury subscale. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the existing SCAS-P six-correlated factor structure was a poor fit for this pooled database. Principal component analysis using half of the pooled s le identified a 30-item five correlated factor structure, but a CFA of this PCA-derived structure in the second half of this pooled s le revealed a poor fit, although the PCA-derived SCAS-P scale and subscales had stronger validity and better internal consistency than the original SCAS-P. The study's limitations, the use of the SCAS-P to screen for DSM-derived anxiety problems in ASD and future research directions are discussed. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1629-1652. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Location: Romania
No related grants have been discovered for Amy Vaughan Van Hecke.