Risk Factors of Anxiety in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review

As children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely to experience anxiety than their peers, investigation of risk factors for anxiety in them is important for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment. Thus, this study aims to explore the risk factors of anxiety in children and adolescent with ASD.Source of Data: To obtain the selected articles to enter the analysis, systematic search strategies were used. The five databases including Scopus, Sciencedirect, PubMed, OVID-PsycINFO, and Springer were searched using a combination of selected keywords.

This study was a systematic review and 5 electronic databases from 2000 to 2019 were searched using a comprehensive search strategy. As a result of this search, 377 articles were retrieved. According to PRISMA and based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 research papers were selected for the study.

Although the findings were somehow contradictory, according to the results of the majority of studies, it can be concluded that anxiety in girls and in older children and adolescents with ASD is higher than boys and younger children and adolescents with ASD. Moreover, it was found that children with higher cognitive functions, lower autism severity, and more social problems had more anxiety symptoms.

The current findings suggest that gender, age, cognitive functioning, ASD severity, and social problems should be considered as potential risk factors for anxiety when assessing a child with ASD. Therefore, early prevention and intervention of anxiety in children with ASD who are most at risk is necessary.