Gender effects on challenging behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorders

Challenging behaviors are extremely prevalent within the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population. To date, numerous factors affecting the rates of challenging behaviors within the ASD population have been examined including age, gender, ethnicity, and intellectual functioning. Controversy has arisen in regard to the effect of gender on challenging behaviors rates in individuals with ASD with some researchers finding differences while others do not. The aim of the current study was to examine the gender effects of children and adolescents with ASD on challenging behavior rates in an effort to assist in clarifying this relationship. Three hundred ninety-one children ages 2 through 17 years participated in the current study and were assigned to one of four groups: male with ASD, male without ASD, female with ASD, and female without ASD. Differences in rates of challenging behaviors between the groups were examined using the Autism Spectrum Disorder-Behavior Problems for Children. Overall, gender was not found to have an effect on the rates of challenging behaviors among children and adolescents with or without ASD. The implications of this finding are discussed along with possible future avenues of investigation.

► Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often exhibit concomitant challenging behaviors (CB), with numerous factors affecting the presence of these behaviors.
► Controversy exists regarding whether gender affects the presence of CB in individuals with ASD.
► We examined the effects of gender and diagnostic group (ASD and non-ASD) on CB in children.
► In general, children with ASD exhibited significantly more CB than those without ASD, but gender did not affect the presence of CB in children overall.
► On CB that did differ, effect size estimates indicated only a minimal to small effect.