Autism Spectrum Disorders, Anxiety, and Religion: The Role of Personality Traits

In mental health care, religion and spirituality can both support and hinder the therapeutic process. This is related to the way people see God or the divine, known as ‘God representations’. Previous research suggests that God representations of persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) tend to be more negative compared with others. The current study, conducted among 103 participants, shows that after adjusting for religious saliency, having an ASD diagnosis had no independent power to predict God representations. However, certain personality traits, being associated with ASD, did. Specifically, low self-directedness and low reward dependence were associated with more negative God representations. ASD usually is a diagnosis for life, and personality traits do not easily change. Scientific and clinical implications are discussed.