Comparison of anxiety symptoms in preschoolers with and without autism spectrum disorder

Introduction: Anxiety symptoms have been reported in children with autism. However, most studies have focused on school-aged children and early anxiety symptoms in preschoolers with autism and their comparison in groups of children with different symptom severity and normal children have been less addressed. So, this study sought to compare total anxiety and anxiety symptoms in children with mild, moderate and severe autism symptom severity and typically developing children. Materials and Methods: The research design is descriptive ex post facto and takes up the form of a cross-sectional study. In this study, four sample groups including 25 children with mild autism symptoms, 25 children with moderate autism symptoms, 21 children with severe autism symptoms and 25 typically developing children participated in the study. Data were collected using the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition (GARS-2) and Preschool Children Anxiety Scale. Results: The results of univariate and multivariate analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between four groups in total anxiety and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety and separation anxiety (P