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Sex differences in employment and supports for adults with autism spectrum disorder.

ABSTRACT: This study explored sex differences in employment, reasons for unemployment, benefits, and supports among a large, international sample of adults with autism spectrum disorder. The sample included 443 adults with autism spectrum disorder (60% female; 74% residing in the United States) who consented to be part of an autism research registry and completed an Internet survey. Outcome variables included current employment status, number of hours working, number of jobs in the past 5?years, reasons for unemployment, as well as the number of benefits received and the amount of financial support currently being received from families of origin. Using multiple regression models, we found that males and females were working at similar rates. Females were more likely than males to say that their unemployment was a result of choosing to withdraw from the labor market. Similar percentages of males and females reported receiving some form of benefits or family support, but of those receiving benefits/family support, males received more than females. These results are consistent with other studies finding subtle, but potentially important sex differences in life-course outcomes of individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

SUBMITTER: Taylor JL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6685759 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sex differences in employment and supports for adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Taylor Julie Lounds JL Smith DaWalt Leann L Marvin Alison R AR Law J Kiely JK Lipkin Paul P

Autism : the international journal of research and practice 20190207 7

This study explored sex differences in employment, reasons for unemployment, benefits, and supports among a large, international sample of adults with autism spectrum disorder. The sample included 443 adults with autism spectrum disorder (60% female; 74% residing in the United States) who consented to be part of an autism research registry and completed an Internet survey. Outcome variables included current employment status, number of hours working, number of jobs in the past 5 years, reasons f ...[more]

PMID: 30729799

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Project description:Although reduced social attention and increased nonsocial attention have been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the studies have relied on predominantly male samples and have been underpowered to examine sex differences. These processes may differ for females with ASD, who have been shown to be dissimilar to males in social motivation and nonsocial features, including circumscribed interests (CI). The goal of this study was to compare social and nonsocial visual attention between males and females with ASD on a validated eye-tracking paradigm. Eighty-five school-aged (6-10 years) males and females with and without ASD completed a paired preference task of face and object stimuli (half of which related to common CI). After covarying for chronological and mental age, the presence of concurrently presented CI images reduced prioritization and attention to faces for males more than females, replicating previous findings. ASD females maintained comparable attention patterns to typically developing females, suggesting that previous findings of reduced social attention and increased attention to CI-related objects in autism may be specific to males. These findings are also inconsistent with the "extreme male brain" theory of autism. The more normative orienting and attention to social stimuli for females with ASD may indicate distinct phenotypic characteristics relative to males and possibly serve as a protective effect. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1264-1275. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: As autism is more commonly diagnosed in males, less is known about females with autism. Two areas of interest include the interests held by individuals with autism and how socially motivated they are. We used eye tracking as a way to understand these two areas. Our data reveal that elementary school-aged females (6-10 years) with autism attended to faces comparatively to females without autism, suggesting that (1) they were more socially motivated than males with autism and (2) the images of common interests were less motivating to them.

Project description:Despite the high prevalence of sensory processing difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little research has focused on the sex differences in sensory processing. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge on the female-specific symptoms of ASD, contributing to later referral, diagnosis and intervention. In this study, we examined the sex differences in sensory processing symptoms in large cohorts of ASD children (N = 168; 26 females, 142 males) and typically developing (TD) children (N = 439; 209 females, 230 males). For this, we translated the sensory processing measure (SPM) and SPM - Preschool (SPM-P) Home Forms to French. The SPM/SPM-P are parent/caregiver questionnaires that assess typical behavioral responses to sensory stimuli. Overall, our results showed that the magnitude of the differences in sensory processing between males and females is larger in ASD children relative to TD children, with females showing more severe symptoms in Hearing, as well as Balance and Motion subscales. Additionally, linear discriminant analysis showed that the SPM/SPM-P are good at discriminating TD children from ASD, children with higher accuracy rates for females than for males. These findings are discussed in light of the heterogeneity of sensory processing difficulties present in ASD. Overall, our results suggest that there seem to be female-specific profiles in sensory processing difficulties in ASD. Implications of findings concerning sex differences in sensory processing and their potential for improving identification and diagnosis of ASD females are discussed. LAY SUMMARY: The present study examined sex differences in behavioral responses to sensory stimuli in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and typically developing (TD) children. While there is a small trend for TD males to show more sensory processing atypicalities, female ASD children show significantly more atypical responses compared to their male counterparts. This has important implications for characterizing female autism profiles, and ultimately improving the chance for earlier detection, diagnosis and treatment.

Project description:Autism may be underdiagnosed in females because their social difficulties are often less noticeable. This study explored sex differences in automatic facial emotion processing in 45 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (22 female, 23 male), age 10-16 years, performing active target detection task and Go/NoGo tasks where faces with positive and negative emotional expressions served as irrelevant distractors. The combined sample demonstrated more accurate performance on the target detection (response initiation) than the Go/NoGo task (response inhibition), replicating findings previously reported in typical participants. Females exhibited greater difficulty than males with response initiation in the target detection task, especially in the context of angry faces, while males found withholding a response in the Go/NoGo block with happy faces more challenging. Electrophysiological data revealed no sex differences or emotion discrimination effects during the early perceptual processing of faces indexed by the occipitotemporal N170. Autistic males demonstrated increased frontal N2 and parietal P3 amplitudes compared to females, suggesting greater neural resource allocation to automatic emotion regulation processes. The associations between standardized behavioral measures (autism severity, theory of mind skills) and brain responses also varied by sex: more adaptive social functioning was related to the speed of perceptual processing (N170 latency) in females and the extent of deliberate attention allocation (P3 amplitudes) in males. Together, these findings suggest that males and females with autism may rely on different strategies for social functioning and highlight the importance of considering sex differences in autism. LAY SUMMARY: Females with autism may exhibit less noticeable social difficulties than males. This study demonstrates that autistic females are more successful than males at inhibiting behavioral responses in emotional contexts, while males are more likely to initiate a response. At the neural level, social functioning in females is related to the speed of automatic perceptual processing of facial cues, and in males, to the extent of active attention allocation to the stimuli. These findings highlight the importance of considering sex differences in autism diagnosis and treatment selection.

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Dataset Information

Sex differences in employment and supports for adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Publications

Sex differences in employment and supports for adults with autism spectrum disorder.

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