Associations of Age, Anxiety, Cognitive Functioning and Social Impairment with Aggression in Youth with Autism

Previous research has indicated that aggression in children with autism is associated with anxiety, cognitive functioning, age, and social functioning although most samples only include parent-report measures and participants without intellectual disability. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationships between these variables and aggression in youth with autism in a large, cognitively diverse sample, with parent- and teacher-report measures, and a wide age range. I found that age and intellectual disability presence/severity had small positive relationships with teacher-measured aggression while anxiety and social impairment severity had strong relationships with aggression when measured by parents and teachers. In a regression analysis anxiety and social communication problems had the strongest positive relationships with aggression while social motivation problems had a negative relationship with aggression. These results indicate the importance of anxiety and social problems, particularly in social communication and motivation, when studying and treating aggression in youth with autism.