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Parent-Endorsed Sex Differences in Toddlers with and Without ASD: Utilizing the M-CHAT
Roald A Øien1,2, Logan Hart3,4, Synnve Schjølberg5
1Department of Psychology, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, PB 6050, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway. roald.a.oien@uit.no.
None:
Sex differences in typical development can provide context for understanding ASD. Baron-Cohen (Trends Cogn Sci 6(6):248-254, 2002) suggested ASD could be considered an extreme expression of normal male, compared to female, phenotypic profiles. In this paper, sex-specific M-CHAT scores from N = 53,728 18-month-old toddlers, including n = 185 (32 females) with ASD, were examined. Results suggest a nuanced view of the "extreme male brain theory of autism". At an item level, almost every male versus female disadvantage in the broader population was consistent with M-CHAT vulnerabilities in ASD. However, controlling for total M-CHAT failures, this male disadvantage was more equivocal and many classically ASD-associated features were found more common in non-ASD. Within ASD, females showed relative strengths in joint attention, but impairments in imitation.
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