Sex as a Moderator Between Parent Ratings of Executive Dysfunction and Social Difficulties in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Girls and boys might differ in autistic symptoms and associated cognitive difficulties such as executive function (EF). We investigated sex differences in the relationship between parent rated EF and autistic symptoms in 116 children and adolescents (25 girls) aged 5-19 years with an intelligence quotient above 70 and an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. They were rated with the behavior rating inventory of executive function (BRIEF) and the autism diagnostic interview revised (ADI-R). We found a positive association between EF and the ADI-R domains of reciprocal social interaction (p < 0.001) and communication (p = 0.001) in girls, while these relationships were small and non-significant in boys. Our results provide a greater understanding of the sex-specific characteristics of children and adolescents with ASD.

Keywords: Autism diagnostic interview revised (ADI-R); Autism spectrum disorder; Behavior rating inventory of executive function (BRIEF); Executive function; Sex differences.

Fig. 1

Simple slopes plots of the interaction between sex and executive function for the prediction of ADI-R subscores. ADI-R autism diagnostic interview- revised, diagnostic algorithm. A reciprocal social interaction domain, B communication domain, C restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behavior domain. BRIEF_GEC behavior rating inventory of executive function, global executive composite. BRIEF scores are reported as T scores (M = 50, SD = 10) and ADI-R scores are reported as domain scores from the diagnostic algorithm