Discrepencies in Anxiety-Reporting in Autism: Correlating Self-Reports with RMSSD

Abstract

Anxiety is one of the most common co-occurring conditions in autistic youth. Anxiety can manifest differently in autistic compared to non-autistic populations, making it difficult to identify anxiety in autistic youth. The Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED; Birhmaher et al., 1997) is considered to be a gold-standard measurement tool that aims to provide a dual-informed perspective (Behrens et al., 2020). However, discrepancies between parent and child reports have been observed, suggesting a need for an objective indicator of anxiety such as low levels of heart rate variability, which can be quantified via root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) (Shaffer & Ginsberg, 2017). This research aimed to investigate the discrepancies between parent- and child-reported anxiety within an autistic and non-autistic sample and examine whether parent and/or child reports are more closely aligned with biological indicators of anxiety (i.e., low RMSSD). We hypothesized that there would be statistically significant discrepancies between the parent and child-reported anxiety symptoms, and that child-reported anxiety would more closely align with RMSSD values (a negative correlation). Participants included 44 adolescents (21 nonautistic, 23 autistic) aged 11-14 years old (Mage = 12.9 years) recruited from a larger study investigating associations between anxiety and heart rate variability. A paired-samples t-test revealed a significant difference between parent and child reported anxiety symptoms, t(43) = -3.22, p < .01, such that youth reported significantly higher anxiety (M = -7.84) than their parents. When utilizing a difference score between parent and child reported anxiety symptoms, an independent-samples t-test revealed a significant group difference, t(42) = 2.43, p = .02, such that the nonautistic group had a larger discrepancy between parent and child scores (M = 13.71) compared to the autistic group (M = 2.48). Finally, a trend toward a negative correlation between parent-reported anxiety symptoms and RMSSD values were observed, r = -.29, p = .06, and a significant correlation between child report and RMSSD value was found, r = .47, p = .02.