Circumscribed interests in autism: are there sex differences?

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Nowell, S. W., Jones, D., & Harrop, C. (2019). Circumscribed interests in autism: are there sex differences? Advances in Autism, 5(3), 187-198. https://doi.org/10.1108/aia-09-2018-0032

Publication date: 20 Feb 2019 Added to AutiHub: 23 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)
  1. Sallie W. Nowell
  2. Desiree Jones *
  3. Clare Harrop

Abstract

Purpose Sex differences in circumscribed interests (CI) may delay diagnosis for females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); therefore, it is important to characterize sex differences in CI to determine if differential approaches to diagnostic assessment are warranted for females with ASD. The purpose of this paper is to examine sex differences in parent-reported quantity, content and functional impairment of children’s interests. Design/methodology/approach Parent responses to the Interests Scale were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVAs to determine diagnostic (ASD vs typical development (TD)) and sex differences between four groups of children ages six to ten years: ASD males, ASD females, TD males and TD females. Findings Groups were comparable on the quantity of interests reported on the Interests Scale. Children with ASD demonstrated significantly more nonsocial interests and had greater functional impairment associated with their interests than TD children. A significant diagnosis×sex effect was found for the number of interests in folk psychology. Descriptively, males with ASD were more likely to have a primary interest in the traditionally male category of physics than females with ASD whose primary interest mainly fell into the categories of TV or the more traditionally female category of psychology. Originality/value These findings strengthen the results of Turner-Brown et al. (2011) by replicating their findings that children with ASD have more nonsocial interests and greater functional impairments related to their interests compared to TD children in a sample that is balanced on biological sex. However, there are distinctions between males and females with ASD in their primary interests that have implications for diagnostic assessment.

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Cited bibliography overview

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Cited references
55
With a DOI
48
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
7
3 / 55 (5.5%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
5 / 55 (9.1%)
References with detected author names
50 / 55 (90.9%)
Without detected author names
5
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
7
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
256
From DOI or external metadata
256
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
84 / 256 (32.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 172 / 256 (67.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
3 / 256 (1.2%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 3 / 84 (3.6%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 2 / 215 (0.9%).
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