AI Article Synopsis
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is linked to social functioning deficits and internalizing disorders, but the impact of personality traits on this relationship is not well understood.
- Research involving two samples found that neuroticism significantly mediated the connection between ASD traits and symptoms like depression and anxiety, with extraversion, openness, and agreeableness also playing roles in certain cases.
- Gender did not significantly affect the mediation results, highlighting the need for further studies in clinical settings to investigate how personality factors can inform intervention strategies for individuals with ASD.
Article Abstract
Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by deficits in social functioning and is comorbid with internalizing disorders and symptoms. While personality is associated with these symptoms and social functioning in non-ASD samples, its role mediating the relationship between ASD traits and internalizing symptoms is not clear.
Methods: We studied the mediating effect of personality on the correlations between ASD traits and internalizing symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress) in two samples. Additionally, we explored the moderating effect of gender. Analyses were applied to a small (Study 1; N = 101) undergraduate sample. A broader sample recruited via an online crowdsourcing platform (Study 2; N = 371) was used to validate the results.
Results: Study 1's mediation analyses revealed that neuroticism was the only significant mediator. Study 2 replicated these results by finding extraversion to be an additional mediator for anxiety and extraversion, openness, and agreeableness as additional mediators for stress. Moderation analyses revealed that gender was never a significant moderator.
Conclusions: These results support the effects of personality on the relationship between autism traits and internalizing symptoms. Future research should explore these effects in clinical samples to better understand the role of personality in symptomatology and the need to address it as part of intervention.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8962582 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-022-00774-z | DOI Listing |
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