The Relationship Between Child Anxiety and the Quality of Life of Children, and Parents of Children, on the Autism Spectrum.
Child anxiety drags down both the child’s and parents’ quality of life, and later predicts school refusal and suicidality—screen early and treat.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers asked 67 parents of autistic kids to fill out three short surveys. One measured the child's anxiety, one measured the child's quality of life, and one measured the parent's own quality of life.
What they found
The higher the child's anxiety score, the lower both the child and parent quality-of-life scores. Social anxiety hurt the child's school life the most. Physical-injury fears hurt the child's emotional life the most.
How this fits with other research
Adams et al. (2020) asked the kids themselves and found a large share said they felt anxious, yet only half thought adults noticed it at school. Together the two studies show anxiety is common, often missed, and clearly drags life quality down.
Adams et al. (2025) followed autistic middle-schoolers for a year and found child anxiety was the strongest predictor of missing school. The QoL drop we see today can turn into long-term school refusal tomorrow.
Chen et al. (2020) linked rising anxiety to higher suicidality risk in kids with elevated autistic traits. The same anxiety that lowers QoL can also create life-threatening crises.
Why it matters
Screen for anxiety at every intake. A quick 20-item parent checklist can flag kids whose daily life and learning are already slipping. Pair the screen with child self-report so you catch what adults overlook. Early anxiety treatment is not extra—it protects the child’s school attendance, emotional health, and even safety, while lifting parent well-being too.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children on the autism spectrum experience high rates of anxiety but little is known about the impact of anxiety on child or parent quality of life (QoL). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between anxiety, autism characteristics, and QoL in children and their parents. Sixty-four parents of children on the spectrum completed questionnaires on their child's autism characteristics, anxiety symptomatology, and both child (PedsQL) and parent QoL (WHOQoL-BREF). Parents of children with elevated anxiety reported lower child and parent QoL. Regression models highlight specific anxiety subscales as predictive of PedsQL school and emotional functioning but not of parent QoL. Anxiety symptomatology may be a significant factor contributing to specific aspects of QoL for children on the spectrum.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2020 · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-03932-2