Utilising Interview Methodology to Inform the Development of New Clinical Assessment Tools for Anxiety in Autistic Individuals Who Speak Few or no Words

Abstract

Autistic individuals with intellectual disability who speak few or no words are at high risk of anxiety but are underrepresented in research. This study aimed to describe the presentation of anxiety in this population and discuss implications for the development of assessments. Interviews were conducted with 21 parents/carers of autistic individuals and nine clinicians. Data were analysed using content analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Anxiety behaviours described by parents/carers included increased vocalisation, avoidance and behaviours that challenge. Changes to routine were highlighted as triggering anxiety. Clinicians discussed the importance of identifying an individual’s baseline of behaviour, knowing an individual well and ruling out other forms of distress. This study raises considerations for early identification of anxiety and for subsequent support.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05509-y
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences > Aston Institute of Health & Neurodevelopment (AIHN)
College of Health & Life Sciences
Additional Information: © The Author(s), 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Funding: Georgina Edwards’ contribution to this paper was made possible through funding from the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund (5009-7975). Dr Joanne Tarver’s contribution to this paper was made possible through funding from Autistica (#7251) and the Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charitable Fund (BCHRF512). We are also grateful for Cerebra for providing infrastructure funding, which supports the Network of researchers who contributed to this research.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Anxiety,Behaviour,Trigger,Assessment,Qualitative
Publication ISSN: 1573-3432
Last Modified: 08 Oct 2024 07:20
Date Deposited: 22 Mar 2022 16:58
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://link.sp ... 803-022-05509-y (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2022-03-18
Published Online Date: 2022-03-18
Accepted Date: 2022-02-26
Authors: Edwards, Georgina
Tarver, Joanne (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-0555-6043)
Shelley, Lauren
Bird, Megan
Hughes, Jessica
Crawford, Hayley
Waite, Jane (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-8676-3070)

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