ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2021
Trajectories of autistic social traits in childhood and adolescence and disordered eating behaviours at age 14 years: A UK general population cohort study.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- A scoping review of the relationship between autistic traits and eating disorders: exploring the secondary impact of eating disorders and co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- A Mixed Method Systematic Review Into the Impact of ED Treatment in Autistic People and Those With High Autistic Traits.The International journal of eating disorders · 2025Pooled it
- Sensory processing and eating behaviours in autism: A systematic review.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2022Pooled it
- Oxytocin Amplifies Negative Response to Ambiguity in Adolescent Females With and Without Eating Disorders.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025Trial
- Associations of Autistic Traits and Autism with Incontinence and Constipation in a UK Birth Cohort.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Towards Identifying Autistic Adults at Risk for Eating Disorders: A Brief Report Into Clustering of Social Camouflaging and Sensory Processing Differences.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2026Article
- Adolescent eating behaviours: associations with autistic and ADHD traits in childhood and the mediating role of anxiety.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- A Longitudinal Study of Head Circumference Trajectories in Autism and Autistic Traits.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Core Deficits and Eating Behaviors in Children with Autism: The Role of Executive Function.Nutrients · 2025Article
- "No one was coming to save us": an interpretative phenomenological analysis exploring the experience of parents supporting their autistic daughter through anorexia nervosa.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Is university attendance associated with differences in health service use for a mental health problem in emerging adulthood? Evidence from the ALSPAC population-based cohort.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Using Photovoice Methods to Set Research Priorities With Autistic People With Experience of an Eating Disorder.Journal of clinical psychology · 2025Article
- Re-imagining connection: the role of late autism diagnosis in eating disorder recovery and social support.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Article
- Nature and nurture in fussy eating from toddlerhood to early adolescence: findings from the Gemini twin cohort.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Article
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Traits Predict Interoceptive Deficits and Eating Disorder Symptomatology in Children and Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa-A Cross-Sectional Analysis: Italian Preliminary Data.Pediatric reports · 2024Article
- Camouflaging, not sensory processing or autistic identity, predicts eating disorder symptoms in autistic adults.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Article
- Barriers and facilitators to ethical co-production with Autistic people with an eating disorder.Journal of eating disorders · 2024Article
- Survey on the Patterns of Feeding Difficulties and Behaviors in Filipino Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Seen in a Philippine Tertiary Hospital and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Acta medica Philippina · 2024Article
- Association between Body Image Flexibility and Intermittent Fasting in Chinese Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.Nutrients · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSome people with eating disorders have difficulties with social communication. However, no longitudinal evidence regarding the direction of this association exists. We investigated trajectories of autistic social traits across childhood and adolescence in adolescents with and without disordered eating behaviours in early adolescence.
methodsWe used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Our disordered eating measure indicated presence of any, monthly and weekly disordered eating (fasting, purging, dieting, binge eating) at age 14 years. Autistic social traits were reported by mothers using the Social and Communication Disorders Checklist (SCDC) at age seven, 11, 14 and 16 years. We modelled SCDC score trajectories using multilevel negative binomial models adjusting for a number of child- and maternal-level confounders.
resultsOf the 5,381 adolescents included in our sample, 421 (7.8%) experienced one or more disordered eating behaviours, and 148 (2.8%) weekly episodes. Adolescents with disordered eating had a 20% increase in SCDC scores (relative risk (RR) 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.14, 1.32) compared to those without disordered eating. This association was particularly apparent for those reporting weekly (RR 1.43, 95%CI: 1.27, 1.61) as opposed to monthly disordered eating (RR 1.12, 95%CI: 1.01, 1.22).
conclusionsGreater autistic social traits in childhood could represent a risk factor for the development of disordered eating in adolescence. Although mechanisms of this association need to be elucidated, clinicians should be aware that autistic social traits could have predated the eating disorder when managing people with these conditions.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.