University of York, UK.
Autism. 2023 Jan;27(1):105-116. doi: 10.1177/13623613221082715. Epub 2022 Jun 6.
Autistic children and adolescents, and their parents/carers, tend to experience more symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to those with other special educational needs and disabilities. The rapid change in society as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have disproportionately affected autistic young people and their parents/carers. We investigated how the mental health of autistic young people, and their parents/carers, developed during the first lockdown in the United Kingdom and how it changed once schools fully reopened for face-to-face teaching approximately 6 months later. Parents/carers completed online standardised questionnaires about their own and their child's mental health at four time points between March 2020 and October 2020. We found that, throughout this period, autistic young people experienced more symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to those with other special educational needs and disabilities. Anxiety levels decreased as lockdown progressed and schools reopened for face-to-face teaching but only for those with other special educational needs and disabilities. For autistic young people, both anxiety and depression symptoms remained high throughout. There were no differences in the mental health of parents/carers of autistic children compared to those with other special educational needs and disabilities. These findings suggest that the mental health of autistic children and adolescents is likely to have been disproportionately affected during and after the first lockdown in the United Kingdom. In the second part of this article (Asbury & Toseeb, 2022), we attempt to explain these trends using qualitative data provided by parents during the same period.
自闭症儿童和青少年，以及他们的父母/照顾者，与其他有特殊教育需求和残疾的儿童相比，往往会经历更多的焦虑和抑郁症状。由于 COVID-19 大流行，社会的快速变化可能对自闭症青少年及其父母/照顾者产生了不成比例的影响。我们调查了自闭症青少年及其父母/照顾者的心理健康在英国第一次封锁期间是如何发展的，以及大约 6 个月后学校全面恢复面对面教学后情况如何变化。父母/照顾者在 2020 年 3 月至 10 月期间的四个时间点通过在线标准问卷报告了自己和孩子的心理健康状况。我们发现，在此期间，自闭症青少年比其他有特殊教育需求和残疾的青少年经历了更多的焦虑和抑郁症状。随着封锁的进行和学校重新开放进行面对面教学，焦虑水平有所下降，但仅对其他有特殊教育需求和残疾的青少年如此。对于自闭症青少年来说，焦虑和抑郁症状一直很高。自闭症儿童的父母/照顾者的心理健康与其他有特殊教育需求和残疾的儿童没有差异。这些发现表明，自闭症儿童和青少年的心理健康在英国第一次封锁期间和之后可能受到了不成比例的影响。在本文的第二部分（Asbury & Toseeb，2022）中，我们试图使用在此期间父母提供的定性数据来解释这些趋势。
