The Stability of Self-Reported Anxiety in Youth with Autism Versus ADHD or Typical Development.

The team asked 88 higher-functioning kids with autism, 43 with ADHD, and 96 typically-developing peers to fill out the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC).

They repeated the same questionnaire 6–12 months later to see if scores stayed steady.

All three groups kept almost the same anxiety scores the second time. The MASC was as stable for autistic youth as for anyone else.

Kids with autism still reported more total anxiety, especially body-based worries like racing heart or stomach aches.

Schaaf et al. (2015) warns that many high-functioning clients lost their autism label when DSM-5 arrived. Hillary’s sample shows the ones who keep the diagnosis still give trustworthy anxiety ratings.

Harris et al. (2021) found adults with motor-coordination disorder also say they are anxious. Together these studies suggest self-report tools stay reliable across neurotypes and ages.

Zheng et al. (2018) flags higher schizophrenia risk in autistic adults. Hillary’s work tells us we can safely use the same anxiety scale at each visit to spot early stress that might signal deeper problems.

You can give the MASC every six months and trust the trend lines. If a higher-functioning client’s score jumps, you know it’s real change, not measurement noise. Use the data to decide when to add CBT, parent training, or medical referral without second-guessing the tool.