ArticlePloS one2011
Are autistic traits in the general population stable across development?
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient to Measure Autistic Traits in Anorexia Nervosa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2016Pooled it
- Are prenatal ultrasound scans associated with the autism phenotype? Follow-up of a randomised controlled trial.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2012Trial
- Linking Auditory Brainstem Neural Stability to Parent-Reported Autistic Traits in School-Age Children.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- The Conceptualization, Experience, and Recognition of Emotion in Autism: Differences in the Psychological Mechanisms Involved in Autistic and Non-Autistic Emotion Recognition.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Variability and stability of autistic traits in the general population: A systematic comparison between online and in-lab samples.Personality neuroscience · 2025Article
- Cross-cultural variation in experiences of acceptance, camouflaging and mental health difficulties in autism: A registered report.PloS one · 2024Article
- Whole-brain gray matter maturation trajectories associated with autistic traits from adolescence to early adulthood.Brain structure & function · 2024Article
- Personalizing AI tools for second language speaking: the role of gender and autistic traits.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Is the association between mothers' autistic traits and childhood autistic traits moderated by maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index?Molecular autism · 2023Article
- Self-harm and Suicidality Experiences of Middle-Age and Older Adults With vs. Without High Autistic Traits.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Article
- Autistic adults exhibit highly precise representations of others' emotions but a reduced influence of emotion representations on emotion recognition accuracy.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The cognitive profile of middle-aged and older adults with high vs. low autistic traits.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2023Article
- Validation of the English version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient in an English-speaking Singaporean sample.PloS one · 2023Article
- After one year in university; a robust decrease in autistic traits reporting among autistic students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Brief Report: Classification of Autistic Traits According to Brain Activity Recoded by fNIRS Using ε-Complexity Coefficients.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2021Article
- Autistic traits are associated with faster pace of aging: Evidence from the Dunedin study at age 45.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2021Article
- A Unifying Theory for Autism: The Pathogenetic Triad as a Theoretical Framework.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Brain structural correlates of autistic traits across the diagnostic divide: A grey matter and white matter microstructure study.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2021Article
- Cortical signatures in behaviorally clustered autistic traits subgroups: a population-based study.Translational psychiatry · 2020Article
- Autistic Traits are Linked to Individual Differences in Familiar Voice Identification.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
There is accumulating evidence that autistic traits (AT) are on a continuum in the general population, with clinical autism representing the extreme end of a quantitative distribution. While the nature and severity of symptoms in clinical autism are known to persist over time, no study has examined the long-term stability of AT among typically developing toddlers. The current investigation measured AT in 360 males and 400 males from the general population close to two decades apart, using the Pervasive Developmental Disorder subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist in early childhood (M = 2.14 years; SD = 0.15), and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient in early adulthood (M = 19.50 years; SD = 0.70). Items from each scale were further divided into social (difficulties with social interaction and communication) and non-social (restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests) AT. The association between child and adult measurements of AT as well the influence of potentially confounding sociodemographic, antenatal and obstetric variables were assessed using Pearson's correlations and linear regression. For males, Total AT in early childhood were positively correlated with total AT (r = .16, p = .002) and social AT (r = .16, p = .002) in adulthood. There was also a positive correlation for males between social AT measured in early childhood and Total (r = .17, p = .001) and social AT (r = .16, p = .002) measured in adulthood. Correlations for non-social AT did not achieve significance in males. Furthermore, there was no significant longitudinal association in AT observed for males or females. Despite the constraints of using different measures and different raters at the two ages, this study found modest developmental stability of social AT from early childhood to adulthood in boys.
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