Abstract
Prior studies of sex-based differences in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have yielded mixed findings. This study examined ASD symptom severity and functional correlates in a sample of 34 high-functioning females with ASD (HFASD; M age = 8.93; M IQ = 104.64) compared to 34 matched males (M age = 8.96; M IQ = 104.44) using the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS-2). Results identified non-significant and minimal differences (negligible-to-small) on the SRS-2 total, DSM-5 symptom subscale, and treatment subscale scores. Significant negative (moderate) correlations were found between the SRS-2 Social Cognition subscale and IQ and language scores and between the SRS-2 Social Motivation subscale and receptive language scores for females only; no significant correlations were found for males.
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Acknowledgments
The research reported in this article was supported by Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences Grants R324A130216 and R324A080136, United States Department of Defense Grant W81XWH-15-1-0195, and a research grant from the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation. Findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.
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JDR conceived of the study, participated in its design, collected and coordinated the data, and drafted the manuscript; JLS contributed to the study design, conducted the statistical analyses, assisted in interpretation of the data, and contributed to manuscript preparation; JPD participated in the design, conducted the statistical analyses, and assisted in the interpretation of the data and preparation of the manuscript; CL participated in the study design and contributed to manuscript preparation; CAM participated in the study design, assisted with data coordination, and contributed to manuscript preparation; MLT participated in the study design and manuscript preparation; AML assisted in data collection, data management, and manuscript preparation; BCN assisted in data collection, data management, and manuscript preparation; AJB assisted in data collection, data management, and manuscript preparation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Rodgers, J.D., Lodi-Smith, J., Donnelly, J.P. et al. Brief Report: Examination of Sex-Based Differences in ASD Symptom Severity Among High-Functioning Children with ASD Using the SRS-2. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 781–787 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3733-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3733-4