Long-term Behavioral Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Autistic Individuals and Their Mothers.
Herdem Aslan Genç, Ceymi Doenyas, Yasemin Aksu and 3 others
PMID 37140744WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic children's behavior worsened in the first month of the pandemic and stayed elevated a year later.
This long-term worsening only happened in children whose mothers had moderate or severe anxiety. Children of mothers with low anxiety did not show significant behavioral changes.
Key findings
01Behavior problems increased significantly one month into the pandemic compared to before, but did not get significantly worse between one month and one year.
02Children whose mothers had moderate or severe anxiety showed significant behavioral worsening over the year, while those with low-anxiety mothers did not.
03Maternal anxiety levels remained high and stable for 70% of the mothers throughout the pandemic period.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample was small (40 children) and recruited from a university hospital, meaning these children likely had more complex needs and higher medication usage than the general autistic population. Maternal anxiety was measured by self-report questionnaires, not clinical diagnosis, so it reflects symptoms rather than a formal anxiety disorder. There was no pre-pandemic data on maternal anxiety, so it is unclear if the high anxiety levels were new or pre-existing. High dropout rates occurred between the initial study and the follow-up, though the remaining participants were similar to those who left.
Declared interests
The text does not explicitly state funding sources or conflicts of interest in the provided sections.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that the pandemic caused universal long-term behavioral deterioration in all autistic children. The study found that significant worsening over the year was specific to children whose mothers had high anxiety levels. Children of mothers with low anxiety did not show this progressive decline.