Undergraduate Research Day 2025

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/33815

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    Discrepancies Between Parent- and Child-Reported Anxiety Symptoms in Autistic and Non-Autistic Youth
    (2025) Resnick, Rachel; Yarger, Heather
    Anxiety is one of the most common co-occurring conditions in youth on the autism spectrum (ASD) and can manifest differently compared to non-ASD youth, making it difficult to identify anxiety in ASD youth. The Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED; Birhmaher et al., 1997) is a gold-standard measurement tool that aims to provide a dual-informed perspective of anxiety symptoms (Behrens et al., 2020). However, discrepancies between parent and child reports have been observed, suggesting a need for further analysis of whether discrepancies vary by diagnostic group (ASD or non-ASD). This study aimed to determine if discrepancies existed between parent- and self-reported anxiety symptoms and if there was a difference between diagnostic groups. Data were obtained from a larger study examining anxiety and heart rate variability in youth. Results of a correlation test showed that parent and child-reported anxiety symptoms scores were not statistically significantly correlated (r = 0.33, p = .07). An independent samples t-test indicated that there was a significant difference between parent-reported and child-reported anxiety symptoms (t = - 3.00, p = .01), such that parent anxiety symptom ratings were 7.4 points lower than child anxiety symptoms (95% CI [-13.33, -2.5]). There was a significant mean difference between the discrepancies for the ASD and non-ASD groups (t = -3.41, p = .001) with a higher rate of discrepancy in the non-ASD group (95% CI [-15.44, 0.07]). These results indicate that parents of non-ASD youth are more likely to underreport their child’s anxiety symptoms, while parents of ASD youth are more likely to align with their child’s report.
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    Intersectionality of Race, Autism, and Anxiety in Marginalized Youth
    (2025) Gyimah, Davina; Thomas, Stephen; Yarger, Heather; Yarger, Heather
    The prevalence of anxiety in marginalized (i.e., non-White) populations has been largely overlooked in literature. Autistic research and its focus on comorbidities with anxiety are mostly focused on White youth and their families (Malone et al., 2022). These gaps in literature are often due to an overrepresentation of White individuals in studies and a lack of wide scale Non-White studies. This may be due to systematic disparities that marginalized populations often face. Research geared towards non-White populations is vital in creating a better understanding of their life experiences and how to treat their diagnoses. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety in non-White adolescents relative to White adolescents, and to examine the intersectionality with autistic diagnoses and experiences of discrimination. The Anxiety Scale for Children- ASD (ASC-ASD; Rodgers et al., 2016) scale was used to assess anxiety and the Everyday Discrimination Scale (Williams et al., 1997) was used to capture experiences of discrimination. Participants were 30 adolescents (12 Non-Hispanic White, 20 non-White), aged 11-14 years, and their parents. Results of an independent samples t-test indicated that marginalized autistic youth reported higher levels of anxiety in comparison to their non-White counterparts (p = 0.08). When evaluating whether experiences of discrimination moderated relations between race and anxiety, we found that the effect of discrimination varies by race, although not statistically significant (p = .13). Further, being a member of a marginalized group was associated with a 19.18-point increase in anxiety (holding experiences of discrimination constant).