Abstract
Autism and anxiety are thought to be related to extreme demand avoidance (EDA), which is characterised by intense avoidance of everyday demands. However, the relative importance of autism and anxiety to EDA has yet to be investigated, and little is known about EDA in adulthood. We conducted two online survey studies (Ns = 267 and 549) with adults in the general population to establish the relative importance of autistic traits and anxiety as predictors of demand avoidance, using dominance analysis. Both autistic traits and anxiety were unique and equally important predictors of demand avoidance. These findings suggest EDA is linked to autism and are consistent with the theory that demand avoidance behaviours are potentially anxiety-driven in adults.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2680-2688 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| Early online date | 18 Apr 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Jul 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022, The Author(s).
Acknowledgements
RW, LAL, and PS conceived of the study, RW, LAL, ECT, SADC, and PS collected the data, RW, PS, and MJC analysed the data, and all authors drafted, read, and approved the final version of the manuscript.Funding
RW and ECT are supported by doctoral studentships from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Whorrod Foundation, respectively. PS and MJC are joint senior authors. All authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords
- Adults
- Anxiety
- Autism
- Extreme demand avoidance
- Pathological demand avoidance
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Understanding the Contributions of Trait Autism and Anxiety to Extreme Demand Avoidance in the Adult General Population'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Cite this
- APA
- Standard
- Harvard
- Vancouver
- Author
- BIBTEX
- RIS