We conducted direct assessments of ASD symptoms at 6 to 9, 12 to 15, 24, and 36 to 60 months of age (total nobservations = 1254) with infant siblings of children with ASD (n = 377) and a lower ASD-familial-likelihood comparison group (n = 168; nobservations = 527). We established measurement invariance across age and sex for separate models of SC and RRB. We then conducted latent class growth mixture modeling with the longitudinal data and evaluated for sex differences in trajectory membership.
We identified 2 latent classes in the SC and RRB models with equal sex ratios in the high-concern cluster for both SC and RRB. Sex differences were also observed in the SC high-concern cluster, indicating that girls classified as having elevated social concerns demonstrated milder symptoms than boys in this group.
This novel approach for characterizing ASD symptom progression highlights the utility of assessing and adjusting for sex-related measurement bias and identifying sex-specific patterns of symptom emergence.
我们对6至9、12至15、24和36至60个月大的ASD症状进行了直接评估(总数=1254),其中包括ASD儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹(n=377)和较低的ASD家族可能性比较组(n=168;总数=527)。
我们在SC和RRB模型中确定了2个潜在类别,在SC和RRB的高关注簇中性别比例相等。
这种表征ASD症状进展的新方法突出了评估和调整与性别相关的测量偏差以及识别症状出现的性别特异性模式的效用。