Abstract
Autistic traits and executive function (EF) were assessed in 413 typically developing children aged 6–9 years. The children were divided into the high- autistic-trait (HAT) and low-autistic-trait (LAT) groups based on their total autistic traits. Results suggested that there were gender differences in specific autistic traits in children with LAT. There were gender-specific associations between EF and autistic traits in children with HAT: the set shifting of EF predicted difficulties in social awareness in boys; whereas all the EF components predicted difficulties in social communication and social cognition in girls. These findings may have implications for developing customized interventions that are targeted at specific autistic deficits in males and females.
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Acknowledgments
Jin Jing was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81573169). Zengjian Wang was supported by Guangdong medical science and technology research fund Project (A2018190) and the PhD Start-up Fund of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2018A030310336). We thank all the participating children and their families. We acknowledge the relevant staffs and students for their contributions to data collection.
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MD, LL and JL contributed to the data collection. MD designed the current study, performed the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. ZW guided the statistical analysis and revised the manuscript. JJ supervised the analysis and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Dai, M., Lin, L., Liang, J. et al. Gender Difference in the Association Between Executive Function and Autistic Traits in Typically Developing Children. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 1182–1192 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3813-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3813-5