Anxiety is a common comorbidity among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), with approximately 40% of youths with ASD meeting the criteria for at least one anxiety disorder (van Steensel et al., 2011). Furthermore, anxiety has been shown to be more likely in adolescents with ASD (Mayes et al., 2011; Vasa et al., 2013). Only one study has shown that exercise has potential benefits for anxiety in 13-27 year olds with mainly mild ASD, following an eight week programme (Hillier et al., 2011). Further research is need to examine the effects of exercise on anxiety in children with more severe symptoms of ASD and to establish if age is a factor on the effects of exercise on anxiety.
PURPOSE: To determine whether age influences the effects of exercise on anxiety levels of children with moderate to severe ASD.
METHODS: Twenty children (5-18 years) with moderate to severe ASD, were included in the study. A 16-week school-based exercise programme was implemented for 60 minutes, three days a week. Anxiety was measured using the Anxiety Scale for Children with ASD (ASC-ASD), which was given to the children’s teacher, before and at the end of the programme. A Spearman’s rank-order correlation was run to measure the relationship between age and the responsiveness of the intervention.
RESULTS: There was a significant, strong negative correlation between age and the effectiveness of the intervention on total ASC-ASD scores, r_s(14) = -0.77, p = 0.001, and on performance anxiety, r_s(14) = -0.73, p = 0.003. There was a significant, moderate negative correlation between age and the effectiveness of the intervention on anxious arousal, r_s(14) = -0.65, p = 0.012, and on uncertainty, r_s(14) = -0.58, p = 0.028. There was an insignificant, weak negative correlation between age and the effectiveness of the intervention on separation anxiety.
CONCLUSION: Age is associated with the effectiveness of exercise on anxiety levels of children with moderate to severe ASD. The older the age of the child, the greater improvement was seen in anxiety levels at school following the exercise programme.
This research was funded by the Institute of Technology Carlow, President’s research fellowship award.