The nature of anxiety in autistic children and its association with dimensions of autism and coping: A regional Australian study

Understanding potentially malleable aspects of autistic children’s processing of social situations may lead to refinements in anxiety-focused interventions for autistic children. In this study, we explored how anxious autistic children compared to anxious non-autistic children in their experiences of anxiety, their coping self-efficacy, and how these were related to social behaviour. Participants were 20 autistic and 38 non-autistic children (50 % of total sample were male) aged 6–10 years and their parents. Parents completed measures of child anxiety subtypes and social behaviour. Children completed measures of anxiety and coping self-efficacy. Pearson correlations, independent samples t test, and ANOVAs were used to examine bivariate relationships between groups on study variables. In families with an anxious autistic child, there was higher overall anxiety, high separation anxiety, and low social support-related coping self-efficacy. Separation anxiety was associated with restricted and repetitive behaviours. There was evidence of differences in the associations between anxiety subtypes and social behaviour in anxious autistic children compared to anxious non-autistic children. Findings suggest that separation anxiety should be a priority in anxiety-focused interventions with autistic children, and educating/training caregivers (including parents and teachers) in facilitating safe social support may be important. • Anxiety in autistic children is common but a clearer picture of anxiety in this group is needed. • Confidence in securing social support was low for anxious autistic children. • Relative to other anxiety subtypes, separation anxiety was high. • Restricted and repetitive behaviours were linked to separation anxiety.