Investigating the Effects of Transdiagnostic Processes on Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Autistic Young People: the Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation.
Georgina L Barnes, Ann Ozsivadjian, Gillian Baird and 2 others
PMID 38438816WHAT IT FOUND
Intolerance of uncertainty strongly predicted anxiety and depression in autistic youth, largely independently of emotion dysregulation.
Emotion dysregulation mediated links between cognitive inflexibility, alexithymia and depression only in non-autistic peers, suggesting distinct pathways to internalising symptoms.
Key findings
01Intolerance of uncertainty had a direct effect on anxiety in both autistic and non-autistic groups, but emotion dysregulation did not mediate this relationship.
02Emotion dysregulation mediated the link between cognitive inflexibility and depression in the non-autistic group, but not in the autistic group.
03Intolerance of uncertainty had a direct effect on depression in the autistic group, but emotion dysregulation did not mediate this link.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used a cross-sectional design, so it cannot determine the direction of relationships or causality. All measures were parent-report, collected at a single time point, which introduces common-method variance and may not capture the young person's internal experience. The sample was clinically referred, so findings may not generalise to the wider population or to autistic individuals with intellectual disability or high support needs. Internal reliability of measures could not be calculated for the specific study participants due to lack of item-level data.
Declared interests
No specific conflicts of interest or funding sources are declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that emotion dysregulation is the primary mechanism driving anxiety in autistic young people. The study found that intolerance of uncertainty predicted anxiety directly, without mediation by emotion dysregulation, whereas mediation was observed for other outcomes or in non-autistic groups.