Autism Traits, Sensory Over-Responsivity, Anxiety, and Stress: A Test of Explanatory Models.

The relationship between autistic traits, stress, and anxiety experienced by the general population was investigated using an adult sample that evaluated the suitability of three theoretical models proposed by Green and Ben-Sasson. Participants completed online questionnaires that were analysed using structural equation modelling and partial correlation analyses. Of the models tested, the model that proposed SOR and stress as mediators of the relationship between autistic traits and anxiety was able to explain the variance in the data better than the other models.