Prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders.

Objective: The goal of the present study was to examine the prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems among children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Method: Archival data from a total of 71 children (Mage = 10.24, SD = 2.91) diagnosed by their clinicians to have high-functioning ASD were obtained. Information on demographics and behavioural and emotional problems from the Child Behavioural Checklist (CBCL) were entered.

Results: We found that between 72% and 86% of children with high-functioning ASD had at least one behavioural or emotional problem of clinical concerns as indicated by the CBCL syndromes and DSM-oriented scales. The most commonly reported problems were social problems (60.6%), thought problems (50.7%), attention problems (49.3%), and withdrawn/depressed (40.8%). Using the DSM-oriented scales, the most commonly reported problems were attention deficit/hyperactivity problems (35.2%), anxiety problems (33.8%) and affective problems (31%).

Conclusions: Findings from the present study provide further evidence to support the high prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems, which could result in multiple psychiatric diagnoses among children with high-functioning ASD.