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Who Responds to Cognitive-Behavioral Group Treatment? Associations Between Anxiety Symptom Reduction and Autism Symptom Domains
Objectives: The goal of this study is to examine the associations between anxiety symptom reductions observed through participation in a multi-family group CBT intervention (Facing Your Fears; Reaven et al., 2011) and quantitative autistic traits as defined by domain scores on the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). We hypothesize that there will be a negative correlation between the change in parent-reported child anxiety and severity of social awareness, social motivation, and social cognition; such that children with less social impairment will show greater reduction of anxiety symptoms after group treatment.
Methods: This is a secondary analysis of data collected as part of a larger study examining the effects of a multi-family CBT intervention targeting anxiety in youth with ASD. Inclusion criteria for these analyses were: data completeness, timeliness of data collection (i.e., within 3 months of starting treatment and within 4 months of completing), and attendance (i.e., 3 or fewer absences). Fifty-seven youth, ages 8-18 (M = 12.49, SD = 2.74), with confirmed ASD and their parents met eligibility criteria for this study. Parents completed the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al., 1999) before treatment, and then completed the SCARED again at post-treatment.
Results: A lack of normality in the distribution of the sample was observed, thus Spearman’s rho was used to examine correlations. Preliminary results indicate a significant positive correlation between impairment in social motivation and anxiety symptom reduction (rs = .36, p = .007); suggesting that strengths in social motivation are not required for group CBT to be effective. Results also indicate a trend towards significance for positive correlations between anxiety symptom reduction and impairments in social cognition (rs = .23), as well as autistic mannerisms (rs = .29), and the overall total autistic social impairment (rs = .27). No significant correlations were found between anxiety symptom reduction and impairments in social awareness or social communication.
Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that social impairment does not preclude readiness for a structured, group treatment for youth with ASD. Contrary to our hypotheses, even if a parent reports that his/her child is not socially motivated, group treatment may be beneficial. Further implications, limitations, and future directions will be discussed.