Brief Report: Influence of gender and age on parent reported subjective well-being in children with and without autism

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with reduced Subjective well-being (SWB). To examine the influence of gender and age on well-being we collected parent reported SWB in children with or without ASD (total n = 1030), aged 8-14 years. Parents reported lower SWB for children with ASD compared to TD children. Gender did not influence SWB, in both ASD and TD groups. Age had no main effect on SWB, but in typically developing children SWB decreased with age while it increased with age in children with ASD. Thus, the difference in SWB between ASD and TD children became smaller throughout development. These findings may reflect different social developmental processes in TD and ASD during early adolescence.