The Mediating Effects of Alexithymia, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Anxiety on the Relationship Between Sensory Processing Differences and Restricted and Repetitive Behaviours in Autistic Adults.
Heather L Moore, Samuel Brice, Lauren Powell and 4 others
PMID 34643864WHAT IT FOUND
Sensory processing differences were linked to restricted and repetitive behaviours in autistic adults.
This link was partly explained by difficulty identifying emotions and intolerance of uncertainty, but anxiety did not mediate the relationship with insistence on sameness.
Key findings
01Sensory processing differences had significant direct effects on both repetitive motor behaviours and insistence on sameness.
02The relationship between sensory differences and repetitive motor behaviours was mediated by a chain of factors: difficulty identifying emotions, intolerance of uncertainty, and anxiety.
03For insistence on sameness, the link with sensory differences was mediated by intolerance of uncertainty alone, and by difficulty identifying emotions leading to intolerance of uncertainty, but anxiety was not a significant mediator.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that sensory differences cause these behaviours or that the mediators work in this specific order. The sample was largely White British and highly educated, and may not represent autistic adults with intellectual disabilities. Anxiety was measured with a general scale (HADS) which may not capture autism-specific anxiety presentations. The sensory measure did not distinguish between hypersensitivity (over-responsiveness) and hyposensitivity (under-responsiveness).
Declared interests
The study was funded by Autistica, a charity. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that treating anxiety alone will reduce insistence on sameness in autistic adults. The study found that anxiety did not mediate the link between sensory differences and this type of repetitive behaviour; intolerance of uncertainty was the stronger explanatory factor.