Comparison of anxiety symptoms in preschoolers with and without autism spectrum disorder

Anxiety symptoms have been reported in children with autism. However, most studies have focused on school-aged children and early anxiety symptoms in preschoolers with autism and their comparison in groups of children with different symptom severity and normal children have been less addressed. So, this study sought to compare total anxiety and anxiety symptoms in children with mild, moderate and severe autism symptom severity and typically developing children.

The research design is descriptive ex post facto and takes up the form of a cross-sectional study. In this study, four sample groups including 25 children with mild autism symptoms, 25 children with moderate autism symptoms, 21 children with severe autism symptoms and 25 typically developing children participated in the study. Data were collected using the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition (GARS-2) and Preschool Children Anxiety Scale.

The results of univariate and multivariate analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between four groups in total anxiety and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety and separation anxiety (P<0.001). The group of children with moderate and severe autism were not significantly different in total anxiety and anxiety symptoms (P=0.99). There was no significant difference between four groups in specific phobias (P<0.05). Also, the results of Scheffe post hoc test showed that the group of children with mild autism experienced higher levels of  total anxiety, social anxiety and generalized anxiety than the group of children with severe and moderate autism and children with typically developing children (P<0.001). Separation anxiety was higher in children with mild autism and children with typically developing children than the other two groups (P<0.001).

Our findings indicates that as the severity of autism symptoms increases, their cognitive abilities decrease in these children and their anxiety levels decreases.  Accordingly, it seems that the experience of anxiety requires some cognitive skills and levels of cognitive development that are deficient in children with moderate and severe autism.