Siracusano Martina, Postorino Valentina, Riccioni Assia, Emberti Gialloreti Leonardo, Terribili Monica, Curatolo Paolo, Mazzone Luigi
Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio 40, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
Children (Basel). 2021 Apr 22;8(5):325. doi: 10.3390/children8050325.
Sex differences in restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been explored with mixed findings. We aimed to investigate sex differences in RRBs through a specific measure-i.e., the Repetitive Behavior Scale Revised (RBS-R)-in a sample of preschool-age and school-age children with ASD. Additionally, we evaluated if RRBs were differently related to adaptive functioning within the male and the female age groups. A sample of 210 ASD individuals (3-18 years; 145 males, 65 females) underwent an in-depth assessment including a cognitive, adaptive functioning evaluation (i.e., the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, Second Edition (ABAS-II)) and RRBs assessment (i.e., RBS-R). No significant sex differences on the RBS-R total score or any RBS-R subscale emerged. Within the group of older participants, RRBs were negatively associated with all adaptive skill domains independently from sex and age. Our results suggest a lack of sex differences in RRBs in our sample. Additionally, our findings highlight the possible negative impact of RRBs on adaptive skills in older individuals with autism, emphasizing the need for autistic individuals of both sexes to undergo an early intervention targeting RRBs, in order to improve their adaptive skills.
人们对自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）个体的受限和重复行为（RRB）中的性别差异进行了探索，结果不一。我们旨在通过一项特定测量方法——即修订版重复行为量表（RBS-R），对一组学龄前和学龄期ASD儿童样本中的RRB性别差异进行调查。此外，我们评估了RRB在男性和女性年龄组中与适应性功能的关联是否存在差异。210名ASD个体（3至18岁；145名男性，65名女性）的样本接受了深入评估，包括认知、适应性功能评估（即《适应性行为评估系统第二版》（ABAS-II））和RRB评估（即RBS-R）。RBS-R总分或任何RBS-R子量表均未出现显著的性别差异。在年龄较大的参与者组中，RRB与所有适应性技能领域均呈负相关，与性别和年龄无关。我们的结果表明，我们样本中的RRB不存在性别差异。此外，我们的研究结果突出了RRB对年龄较大的自闭症个体适应性技能可能产生的负面影响，强调了自闭症男女个体都需要接受针对RRB的早期干预，以提高他们的适应性技能。
