Beyond Autism: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study of High-Risk Children at Three Years of Age

In the paper

“At 3 years, HR siblings without an ASD outcome exhibited higher mean ADOS severity scores and lower verbal and non-verbal DQs than LR controls.”

• Also stated in: § Analyses of Means · hedged

  “There were significant risk group effects on verbal DQ (t = −5.43, p < .001), with the HR group scoring an estimated 7.76 points lower than the LR group (CI = 4.96–10.56, d = 0.46).”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “Overall, HR siblings evidenced lower verbal and nonverbal DQs than LR children.”

In the paper

“HR siblings were more than 3 times more likely than LR children to occupy class 4, which was characterized by low severity scores and low levels of developmental functioning, particularly in the verbal domain.”

In the paper

“The remaining HR siblings without ASD outcomes (79%) belonged to classes in which they were not differentially represented with respect to LR siblings.”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “There were not significant risk group differences in the composition of classes 1 and 2 (65% of HR siblings and 83% of controls).”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “Four-fifths of these HR siblings were not significantly less likely than control subjects to fall into classes characterized by a range of typical outcomes.”

In the paper

“and 2.9 times more likely than females to be classified in class 5 (elevated ASD severity/low-average DQ).”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · hedged

  “Males were almost three times more likely than females to belong both to class 4 and to class 5.”

In the paper

“and 4.6 times more likely than LR controls to belong to class 5 (elevated ASD severity/low-average DQ).”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “HR siblings were more than four times more likely than LR children to occupy class 5, which was characterized by both elevated ASD severity and low-average developmental functioning.”

In the paper

“At 3 years, HR siblings without an ASD outcome exhibited higher mean ADOS severity scores and lower verbal and non-verbal DQs than LR controls.”

• Also stated in: § Analyses of Means · hedged

  “Parameter estimates indicated that the high-risk group had significantly higher severity scores than the low-risk group by an estimated 0.41 point on the 10-point scale (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.18–0.70, d = 0.26).”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “Overall, HR siblings had slightly higher ASD severity scores than LR comparison children on the ADOS.”

In the paper

“HR siblings were over-represented (21% HR versus 7% LR) in latent classes characterized by elevated ADOS severity and/or low to low-average DQs.”

• Also stated in: § Latent Class Analysis · plain

  “The remaining 21% of HR siblings were contained in class 4, characterized by low ASD severity scores and low DQ, and in class 5, characterized by elevated ASD severity scores and low-average DQ.”

In the paper

“At 3 years, HR siblings without an ASD outcome exhibited higher mean ADOS severity scores and lower verbal and non-verbal DQs than LR controls.”

• Also stated in: § Analyses of Means · hedged

  “A significant effect for risk group was also found for nonverbal DQ (t = −3.05, p < .01), with the high-risk group scoring an estimated 4.20 points lower than the low-risk group (CI = 1.50–6.89, d = 0.26).”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “Overall, HR siblings evidenced lower verbal and nonverbal DQs than LR children.”

In the paper

“There were also significant sex effects on nonverbal DQ scores (t = 7.27, p < .01), with males scoring an average of 9.01 (CI = 6.58–11.44, d = 0.57) points lower than females.”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “Independent of risk group, male children exhibited lower levels of verbal and nonverbal functioning than female children.”

In the paper

“The analysis did not reveal a significant effect of multiplex status (Wald z = −1.67, p = .10).”

In the paper

“In addition, the mean ASD severity score for HR siblings was well below the cut-off of 4 points that indexes an ASD classification.33”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Gotham, 2007, The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule: revised algorithms for improved diagnostic validity, J Autism Dev Disord source

In the paper

“and an average of 10.98 (CI = 3.34–18.61, d = 0.68) points lower on nonverbal DQ than participants from simplex families (t = −2.82, p < .01).”

In the paper

“There were also significant sex effects on verbal DQ (t = −3.05, p < .01), with males scoring an average of 8.34 (CI = 5.82–10.87, d = 0.50) points lower than females.”

• Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · plain

  “Independent of risk group, male children exhibited lower levels of verbal and nonverbal functioning than female children.”

In the paper

“Results of the LCA yielded a five-class solution as the best fitting model.”

In the paper

“children from simplex families were 10.29 (CI = 1.26–82.61) times more likely than children from multiplex families to belong to class 1 (low ASD severity/high DQ) rather than comparison class 2.”

In the paper

“In addition, males were 0.6 times less likely than females to be classified in class 1 (low ASD severity/high DQ).”

In the paper

“Sex also had a significant effect on severity scores (Wald z = 4.82, p < .001), with male children having higher scores than female children by an estimated 0.43 point (CI = 0.23–0.68; d = 0.27).”

In the paper

“Independent of risk group, boys exhibited higher ASD severity scores than girls at 3 years, which extends similar findings based on parent report19 and parallels the higher rate of ASD diagnosis among boys in epidemiologic and prospective high-risk samples.4,35”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [19] Constantino, 2010, Sibling recurrence and the genetic epidemiology of autism, Am J Psychiatry source
• Not checked yetcites [4] Ozonoff, 2011, Recurrence risk for autism spectrum disorders: a Baby Siblings Research Consortium study, Pediatrics source
• Not checked yetcites [35] Sumi, 2006, Sibling risk of pervasive developmental disorder estimated by means of an epidemiologic survey in Nagoya, Japan, J Hum Genet source

In the paper

“A latent class analysis distinguished groups of HR and LR children with similar 3-year outcomes.”

In the paper

“Independent of risk group, male children exhibited lower levels of verbal and nonverbal functioning than female children.36,37”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [36] Arden, 2006, Sex differences in variance of intelligence across childhood, Personal Indiv Diff source
• Not checked yetcites [37] Dezoete, 2003, Prediction of Bayley and Stanford-Binet scores with a group of very low birthweight children, Child source

In the paper

“There were not significant risk group differences in the composition of classes 1 and 2 (65% of HR siblings and 83% of controls).”

In the paper

“Among HR siblings without an ASD outcome, there were no significant risk group differences in the composition of class 3 (14% HR siblings, 11% controls), which was characterized by elevated ASD severity and high levels of verbal and nonverbal functioning.”

In the paper

“By way of example, a male HR sibling from a multiplex family was estimated to have verbal and nonverbal DQs more than 20 points below those of a child with none of these characteristics.”

In the paper

“This indicates that HR siblings without an ASD outcome are not less likely than controls to be characterized by average and above average levels of functioning at 3 years of age.13”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [13] Landa, 2012, Latent class analysis of early developmental trajectory in baby siblings of children with autism, J Child Psychol Psychiatry

In the paper

“These results suggest that an early manifestation of a BAP—characterized by ASD-related behaviors and/or lower levels of developmental functioning—was present in approximately one in five HR siblings without an ASD outcome.”

• Also stated in: § Conclusions · hedged

  “This empirically derived characterization of an early-emerging pattern of difficulties in a minority of 3-year-old HR siblings suggests the importance of developmental surveillance and early intervention for these children.”

In the paper

“Together, risk group effects and the additional, independent effects associated with being male and being a sibling from a multiplex family were clinically significant.”

In the paper

“The overrepresentation of HR siblings among latent classes characterized by subtly disturbed levels of functioning is consonant with genetic models of ASD that encompass the transmission of subclinical manifestations of the autistic syndrome in a subset of first-degree relatives, on the basis of either incomplete penetrance or additive (multigenic) models of inheritance.39–41”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [39] Eapen, 2011, Genetic basis of autism: is there a way forward?, Curr Opin Psychiatry source
• Not checked yetcites [40] Geschwind, 2009, Advances in autism, Annu Rev Med source
• Not checked yetcites [41] Constantino JN, Todorov A, Hilton C, et al. Autism recurrence in half siblings: strong support for genetic mechanisms of transmission in ASD [published online February 28, 2012]. Mol Psychiatry. 2012. doi: 10.1038/mp.2012.9. source

In the paper

“Differences in severity scores were small, approximately half a point on a 10-point scale.”

In the paper

“However, one-fifth of HR siblings, the majority of them male, disproportionately fell into classes exhibiting higher levels of ASD severity and/or lower levels of developmental functioning.”

In the paper

“Likewise, there is accumulating evidence that HR siblings from multiplex families exhibit higher levels of ASD-related characteristics17,19,20 than do HR siblings who have a single older sibling with an ASD.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [17] Schwichtenberg, 2010, Can family affectedness inform infant sibling outcomes of autism spectrum disorders?, J Child Psychol Psychiatry source
• Not checked yetcites [19] Constantino, 2010, Sibling recurrence and the genetic epidemiology of autism, Am J Psychiatry source
• Not checked yetcites [20] Constantino, 2006, Autistic social impairment in the siblings of children with pervasive developmental disorders, Am J Psychiatry source

In the paper

“Complementing the over-representation of ASD among males, higher levels of ASD-related characteristics are reported among male than among female HR siblings without an ASD outcome.12,19”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [12] Zwaigenbaum, 2012, Sex differences in children with autism spectrum disorder identified within a high-risk infant cohort, J Autism Dev Disord
• Not checked yetcites [19] Constantino, 2010, Sibling recurrence and the genetic epidemiology of autism, Am J Psychiatry source

In the paper

“In addition, the mean of individual posterior probabilities of class membership were relatively high within each of the five classes, ranging from 0.77 to 0.89.”

In the paper

“Although data on maternal educational attainment data were not available for the entire sample, study results were unchanged in analyses controlling for maternal education.”

In the paper

“An additional limitation of the study is the strictness of the ASD exclusion criteria, which required both meeting the ADOS cut-off and a clinical diagnosis.”

In the paper

“Although HR siblings were overrepresented in latent classes characterized by elevated ASD severity and/or lower levels of developmental functioning, the majority of HR siblings belonged to classes characterized by low levels of ASD severity and typical levels of developmental functioning.”

In the paper

“The composition of this class is consistent with previous research indicating that a range of ASD-related behavioral features is present in low-risk as well as high-risk children.20,43,44”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [20] Constantino, 2006, Autistic social impairment in the siblings of children with pervasive developmental disorders, Am J Psychiatry source
• Not checked yetcites [43] Constantino, 2003, Autistic traits in the general population: a twin study, Arch Gen Psychiatry source
• Not checked yetcites [44] Ben-Yizhak, 2011, Pragmatic language and school related linguistic abilities in siblings of children with autism, J Autism Dev Disord source