Brief report: effects of sensory sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty on anxiety in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder

Mirko Uljarević*, Sarah Carrington, Susan Leekam

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study examined the relations between anxiety and individual characteristics of sensory sensitivity (SS) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in mothers of children with ASD. The mothers of 50 children completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Highly Sensitive Person Scale and the IU Scale. Anxiety was associated with both SS and IU and IU was also associated with SS. Mediation analyses showed direct effects between anxiety and both IU and SS but a significant indirect effect was found only in the model in which IU mediated between SS. This is the first study to characterize the nature of the IU and SS interrelation in predicting levels of anxiety.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)315-319
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Volume46
Issue number1
Early online date9 Aug 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2016

Bibliographical note

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2557-8

Keywords

  • anxiety
  • autism spectrum disorders
  • intolerance of uncertainty
  • parents
  • sensory sensitivity

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