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. 2023 Jan 24;20(3):2132.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032132.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Psychosocial Well-being and Adaptation in Children and Adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome

Marta Tremolada  1   2 , Mariangela Rosa  3 , Roberta Maria Incardona  2 , Livia Taverna  4 , Michele Guidi  3
Affiliations

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Psychosocial Well-being and Adaptation in Children and Adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome

Marta Tremolada et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Mental health could worsen in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, their parents could be more at risk for an increase in anxiety and depression symptomatology. This study aims to understand the adaptation and the psychosocial well-being in a sample of 16 males aged 10-21 years old with Asperger's syndrome after the quarantine for COVID-19 when they return to school and partially to their activities in September 2020. The adopted approach is multi-informant with a battery of questionnaires on psychological health and adaptation given by a secure online web data Qualtrics both to adolescents and also to their parents. Paralleling matched peers with typical developments were assessed by adopting the same methodology. The results evidenced several difficulties in psychological health in population with Asperger's syndrome, especially in anxiety and socialization. Adaptation is put in crisis, even if they reported a good comprehension and adoption of the right behaviors anti-COVID-19. Parents of children with Asperger's syndrome reported similar psychological difficulties and general health to those of the group of children typically developing. Some clinical indications could be discussed for psychologists who follow children and adolescents with Asperger's syndrome.

Keywords: Asperger’s syndrome; COVID-19; adaptation; adolescents; atypically development; children; multi-informant; parents; typically development; well-being.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Parents symptomatology in the clinic group. (b) Parental symptomatology in the control group. Legend: red = clinic score; orange = moderate clinic score; yellow: mildly clinic score; green = normal score.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Parents symptomatology in the clinic group. (b) Parental symptomatology in the control group. Legend: red = clinic score; orange = moderate clinic score; yellow: mildly clinic score; green = normal score.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Estimated marginal means of Cantrill’s life perceptions in the neurotypical group. Legend: T1 = Life September 2019; T2 = Life in quarantine; T3 = Life-related to return to everyday life/September 2020.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Placement at the normal or clinical level for both groups on all SAFA scales.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Placement in the worst or best adaptive behavior in ABAS-2 scores in the clinic group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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