TY - JOUR PY - 2023// TI - Understanding aggression in autism across childhood: comparisons with a non-autistic sample JO - Autism research A1 - Quetsch, Lauren B. A1 - Brown, Cynthia A1 - Onovbiona, Harlee A1 - Bradley, Rebecca A1 - Aloia, Lindsey A1 - Kanne, Stephen SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - As many as half of all autistic youth face challenges with aggression. And while research in this area is growing, the prevalence and characterization of aggressive behaviors across autistic development remains poorly understood. This lack of knowledge on the autistic experience is further clouded as aggression is rarely compared against non-autistic youth samples. To address this gap in the literature, the present study compared autistic children (N = 450) to non-autistic children (N = 432) on multiple caregiver-report measures of aggressive behavior and associated constructs (i.e., anger, disruptive behavior) across key developmental periods (<6, 6-12, 13-17 years) via a cross-sectional design. Outcomes indicated higher levels of verbal aggression and behavioral intensity for autistic youth across development. Further, autistic children under age 6 had more significant levels of physical aggression than non-autistic peers; however, these levels became equal to non-autistic peers as the youths aged. Implications for differences in the presence of aggressive behavior as well as possible treatment options for aggression are discussed.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1939-3792 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2930 ID - ref1 ER -