Anxiety is a mental health concern affecting many autistic children, and has been linked to greater differences in social communication and interaction style. Executive functioning (i.e. the ability to direct and regulate attention and behaviour) plays an important role in autistic children's social-emotional development. We tested whether anxiety (reported by parents) predicts social communication and interaction differences (reported by teachers) over time or vice versa among autistic preadolescents. We also investigated whether the link between anxiety and social communication and interaction differed depending on children's EF abilities (reported by teachers). We found less parent-reported anxiety predicted more teacher-reported social communication and interaction differences a year later - but only for children who had heightened behavioural dysregulation (an aspect of executive functioning that includes impulse and emotion control). Our work suggests autistic preadolescents with behavioural dysregulation and limited anxiety may be at greater risk for social difficulties, and may need more support in this area. Executive functioning may be a useful mechanism to target in treatment for this group of children.
Keywords: anxiety; autism; executive function; social communication.