Anxiety Levels of Children with Developmental Disorders in Japan: Based on Reports Provided by Parents.
Japanese parents report sky-high anxiety in children with developmental disorders, and kids with autism top the chart.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Parents in Japan filled out a short survey about their child’s anxiety. The children had autism, developmental delay, or ADHD. Two hundred three surveys were returned.
What they found
Every group scored above the norm for typical kids. Children with autism had the highest parent-rated anxiety. The gap was large enough to see without a calculator.
How this fits with other research
Adams et al. (2020) asked the kids themselves and got the same picture: almost every autistic child said they felt anxious. The match shows parents can spot the problem.
Franke et al. (2026) found a twist: when autism traits are severe, parents rate anxiety even higher than the child does. The Japanese numbers fit this pattern—parents of kids with ASD gave the top scores.
Ambrose et al. (2022) link the anxiety to real life: higher scores mean kids join fewer home and community activities. The survey data now gives you a quick way to find who might be missing out.
Why it matters
You now have a one-page parent survey that flags anxiety in Japanese children with developmental disorders. Use it during intake. If the autism group scores high, plan anxiety targets right away—doing so may protect both participation and quality of life.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A large number of children with developmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder (ASD), learning disabilities, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have high anxiety. It has also been shown that the high anxiety has harmful effects on them, directly and indirectly. In this study, we conducted a survey on community samples on the level of anxiety of children with developmental disorders in Japan that had hardly been studied so far, and compared them with the anxiety in children in a general population sample in previous studies. Analysis on the 203 participants showed that children with developmental disorders have high anxiety as compared to children as in previous studies in other countries. Particularly children with ASD had a higher anxiety compared with children with developmental disorders without ASD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04092-z