Profiling Autism Symptomatology: An Exploration of the Q-ASC Parental Report Scale in Capturing Sex Differences in Autism

Abstract

The Questionnaire for Autism Spectrum Conditions (Q-ASC) was developed by Attwood et al. (2011) to identify gender-sensitive profiles of autism symptomatology; prioritise and adjust the direction of clinical interventions; and support positive psychosocial outcomes and prognosis into adulthood. The current research piloted the Q-ASC with parents of 238 children with a clinical diagnosis of ASD-Level 1 (without intellectual or language impairment). Data analysis revealed eight interpretable and reliable components of the Q-ASC using Principle components analysis. Comparisons across age and gender groups found statistically significant mean differences of parent-reported characteristics. The findings from this study aim to identify improvements in the Q-ASC towards the future assessment of the sensitivity and diversity of presentations of autism among female children and adolescents.

The Female Autism Phenotype and Camouflaging: a Narrative Review

“…Camouflaging behaviours were observed in autistic girls in the playground, but not autistic boys or typically developing children of either gender (Dean et al 2017). Parent-reported measures reveal that autistic girls use more social masking and imitation strategies than boys (Ormond et al 2018). When asked to report whether or not they camouflage, no gender differences have been observed in autistic adults (Cage et al 2018;Cassidy et al 2018;Hull et al 2017a).…”

“…The CAT-Q represents another advantage of observational/reflective approaches to measuring camouflaging; it is grounded in a conceptualisation of camouflaging based on autistic individuals' own experiences (Hull et al 2017a). Another is the social masking subscale of the Questionnaire for Autism Spectrum Conditions (Q-ASC; Ormond et al 2018), a parent-report measure which has been validated in children without intellectual disability. As a result, these measures of camouflaging have greater relevance to autistic individuals' actual experience of camouflaging, and therefore can be applied in clinical and individual settings to help autistic people understand more about their own camouflaging behaviours.…”

Emotional expression in psychiatric conditions: New technology for clinicians

“…Incorporating new technology in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures not only can improve the accuracy of diagnosis and the efficiency of therapy, but can also help in redefining diagnostic criteria . Modern technology can also be of considerable value to diagnosticians in terms of exploring the way ASC is expressed differently in girls than in boys, and for further investigation of the camouflaging effect in females, which may pose a risk of under‐diagnosis or misdiagnosis for this population …”

Detection and Diagnosis of ASD in Females

“…The first screener for the female autistic presentation in children and adolescents was recently developed (Ormond et al, 2018) in a pilot study involving 232 females. The questionnaire has two forms, one for children 5-12 years of age (GQ-ASC 5-12 years) and another form for adolescents 13-19 years of age (GQ-ASC 13-19 years).…”