Brief Report: Mental Health and Wellbeing Across the Autism Assessment Experience.
Autism assessments do not harm youth mental health, so timely evaluation is safe.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Philippa et al. (2025) tracked youth mental health before and after an autism assessment.
They used a simple pre-post design with no control group.
Parents and youth filled out the same mood and wellbeing forms at both time points.
What they found
Mental health scores stayed flat.
Kids who entered the clinic with high anxiety or low mood left with the same levels.
The assessment process itself did not make things worse.
How this fits with other research
Moss et al. (2015) showed that almost half of diagnosed adults had no mental-health problems, hinting that distress is trait-like, not created by testing.
Monnier et al. (2026) followed families for three years after diagnosis and also saw stable parent and child distress, extending the “no-worsening” pattern.
Andersen et al. (2015) found parent-reported depression in autistic youth can even improve over two years, matching the idea that assessment is not a harm.
Why it matters
You can stop postponing evaluations out of fear they will crush a child’s spirit.
Screen and refer for mood issues at intake, because those problems are already there and they linger.
Use the assessment visit as a chance to link families to mental-health resources right away.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: With growing frequency, young people are referred for autism assessment following the onset of mental health difficulties, such as anxiety and depression. Understanding the nature of these difficulties and how they change through the assessment process may be crucial in providing effective support; this study provided the first longitudinal assessment of that. METHOD: Twenty-seven young people and their parents/carers completed questionnaire measures of mental health, wellbeing and quality of life while waiting for an autism assessment, at the point of assessment and three months after receiving their diagnostic outcome. RESULTS: A range of clinically-significant mental health presentations were reported. Young people commonly reported more severe symptoms than their parents, while parents reported a more significant impact. Mental health symptoms were correlated with quality of life. There was not evidence that the potentially stressful experience of waiting for and completing an assessment negatively impacted young people's mental health or wellbeing. CONCLUSION: Young people waiting for autism assessment experience varied, enduring and impactful difficulties with mental health: comprehensive assessment is required to meet their needs. At a group-level, there is no good reason to delay autism assessment for fear of worsening mental health symptoms.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2023.102135