Depressive symptoms and activity engagement in autistic adolescents and those with other developmental disabilities.
Lisa D Wiggins, Julie Daniels, Katie Overwyk and 7 others
PMID 38664150WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic teens and those with other disabilities had more depressive symptoms and less activity engagement than peers.
Sports linked to fewer symptoms, but the group showing the benefit depended on how depression was defined. No cause can be proven from this data.
Key findings
01Autistic adolescents and those with other developmental disabilities had significantly higher rates of depressive symptoms than adolescents with no developmental disabilities.
02Autistic adolescents and those with other developmental disabilities participated in significantly fewer clubs and organized activities than adolescents with no developmental disabilities.
03Participation in sports was inversely associated with depressive symptoms, but the specific groups showing this association varied depending on whether depression was defined broadly or narrowly.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if activity engagement reduces depressive symptoms or if depressive symptoms reduce activity engagement. Depressive symptoms were defined by parent report and survey questions rather than a standardized clinical measure, and adolescents did not report their own symptoms. Activity engagement was measured as yes/no participation over the past 12 months, without data on frequency, intensity, or duration. The sample was predominantly from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (family income ≥ 300% of federal poverty level), which may limit generalizability to lower-income households. The study was not powered to analyze associations stratified by factors like intellectual disability or sex.
Declared interests
The text does not explicitly state funding sources or conflicts of interest, but notes that the SEED Teen survey topics were chosen with input from autistic people and questions were selected from existing national surveys.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that sports participation causes a reduction in depressive symptoms. This is a cross-sectional study, so the direction of the relationship is unknown. Furthermore, the association between sports and lower symptoms varied by group and definition, meaning sports may not have the same protective effect for all adolescents with developmental disabilities.