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The role of language comprehension ability on anxiety in autistic and typically-developing children
Poster Session B, Friday, October 25, 10:00 - 11:30 am, Great Hall 3 and 4
Matthew Ganquan Shi1,2, Hanlin Wu1, Gary Yu-Hin Lam1, Xin Kang3, Patrick CM Wong1, Xiujuan Geng1; 1The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2The University of Maryland, College Park, 3Chongqing University, China
#Introduction# Autistic children have a higher prevalence of anxiety than typically developing (TD) children (van Steensel & Heeman, 2017). Limited social communication (SC) skills among autistic children may lead to social rejection and subsequent anxiety (Wood & Gadow, 2010), while language deficits can also contribute to heightened anxiety (Asher & Gazelle, 1999). Given the prevalence of language delay or deficits in autistic children (Tager-Flusberg, 2016), we investigate the role of language comprehension (LC) skills in autism severity (AS) and anxiety levels (AL), potentially shedding light on the underlying neuronal mechanism. We hypothesize that (i) poorer LC skills predict higher AS, particularly SC skill differences, and AL, and (ii) higher AS predicts higher AL. Path analysis is employed to test these hypotheses. #Methods# Fifty-three Cantonese-speaking children aged 8-12 years, diagnosed as autistic (N=32, M:F=29:3) or not (N=21, M:F=14:7), were recruited from local mainstream schools. All participants had normal hearing and nonverbal IQs > 85 and were administered the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition, Module 3 (ADOS-2; Lord et al., 2012) and Textual Comprehension subscale of the Hong Kong Cantonese Oral Language Assessment Scale (HKCOLAS-TC; T'sou et al., 2006). Their parents filled out the Anxiety Scale for Children with [Autism Spectrum Disorder] (ASC-ASD; Rodgers et al., 2016) and the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS; Spence, 1997, 1998; not used in the current study). ADOS-2 total scores reflect AS, while the Social Affects (SA) subtotals suggest SC skills difficulties. HKCOLAS-TC assesses LC skills. ASC-ASD measures AL. Correlation analysis was conducted among (i) LC, AS, and AL, and (ii) LC, SC, and AL. Using R’s “lavaan” package, path analysis tested our hypotheses with the following settings (abbreviations represent variables): (1)-a AL=α1+β1*LC+β2*AS+e1 (1)-b AS=α2+β3*LC+e2 (2)-a AL=α1+β1*LC+β2*SC+e1 (2)-b AS=α2+β3*LC+e2 #Results# Pearson’s Correlation results were as follows (the tilde ~ means “correlate ... and ...”; *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001): LC~AS/SC: -0.48***/-0.43***; LC~AL: -0.40*; AS/SC~AL: 0.36**/0.30*. Path analysis (N=53) revealed that LC significantly predicted AS (β=-0.482, p=0.001, R²=0.173), which in turn predicted AL (β=0.622, p=0.003). LC did not directly affect anxiety (β=-0.339, p=0.169). Together, LC and AS explained 24.6% of the variance in AL (R2=0.246). These findings suggest that LC influences AS, which subsequently predicts AL. Parallel results were obtained when using SA subtotals to represent SC skill difficulties: LC predicted SC skill difficulties (β=-0.351, p=0.006, R²=0.131), which in turn predicted AL (β=0.584, p=0.022). No direct prediction was found between LC and AL (p=0.080). #Discussion and conclusion# The path modeling established a mediation model among language comprehension skills, autistic features, and anxiety in school-age autistic and typically-developing children. The indirect effect of language on anxiety differs from Rodas et al. (2017), possibly due to different assessment criteria (grammar vs. integrative comprehension) and age range. Impaired comprehension may lead to avoidance in social interaction and ineffective communication, resulting in increased anxiety. The results call for specific treatment targeting language comprehension. Moreover, as the neuronal mechanism behind autistic traits remains elusive, our behavioral research provides a possible model connecting them with language and anxiety.
Topic Areas: Disorders: Developmental,