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. 2015 Dec;45(12):4074-83.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-015-2522-6.

Age and Adaptive Functioning in Children and Adolescents with ASD: The Effects of Intellectual Functioning and ASD Symptom Severity

Trenesha L Hill  1 , Sarah A O Gray  2 , Jodi L Kamps  3 , R Enrique Varela  4
Affiliations

Age and Adaptive Functioning in Children and Adolescents with ASD: The Effects of Intellectual Functioning and ASD Symptom Severity

Trenesha L Hill et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015 Dec.

Abstract

The present study examined the moderating effects of intellectual functioning and ASD symptom severity on the relation between age and adaptive functioning in 220 youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Regression analysis indicated that intellectual functioning and ASD symptom severity moderated the relation between age and adaptive functioning. For younger children with lower intellectual functioning, higher ASD symptom severity was associated with better adaptive functioning than that of those with lower ASD symptom severity. Similarly, for older children with higher intellectual functioning, higher ASD symptom severity was associated with better adaptive functioning than that of those with lower ASD symptom severity. Analyses by subscales suggest that this pattern is driven by the Conceptual subscale. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Keywords: ASD symptom severity; Adaptive functioning; Age; Autism spectrum disorder; Intellectual functioning.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Graph of the three-way interaction between age, intellectual functioning, and ASD symptom severity predicting ABAS global composite scores. * Line has a significant slope Lines with different subscripts have significantly different slopes
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Graph of the three-way interaction between age, intellectual functioning, and ASD symptom severity predicting ABAS conceptual scores. * Line has a significant slope Lines with different letter or number subscripts have significantly different slopes
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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