Sex Differences in Social and Cognitive Abilities of Autistic Individuals

Autistic females have been consistently underdiagnosed and diagnosed later compared to autistic males. Although the causes are multifactorial, this discrepancy can be partially explained by different behavioral manifestations in the social domain that conform more closely to societal expectations, as well as by the presence of camouflage behaviors. The aim of this dissertation is to study sex differences in caregivers' perceptions of their offspring, considering both mothers and fathers. In addition, given that current research focuses on the investigation of broad social constructs, we also aim to explore sex differences in the specific interaction features of autistic individuals. Lastly, given the association of social aspects with cognitive development, we aim to deepen the understanding of cognitive variables, as current research in this area is limited and inconclusive. In the first study, our results indicate that, despite comparable symptom severity, female preschoolers are perceived as advantaged in Social Communication and Social Motivation. Building on these findings, we examined whether bidirectional interaction features related to Interpersonal Synchrony showed sex differences in a sample of autistic preschoolers during play exchanges, with both a psychologist and caregivers. The results showed that females demonstrated greater behavioral synchrony. Moreover, they participated in longer, more complex, and engaging interactions. This enhanced Interpersonal Synchrony may underlie the differing parental perceptions of male and female children. Given the profound association between social and cognitive development, we first conducted a systematic review on sex differences in cognitive profiles highlighting the inconclusive results of current studies and avenues for future research. Subsequently, we presented original research on the cognitive variables of preschool and school-aged individuals, which demonstrated an absence of sex differences in cognitive performance. Overall, our results suggest differences in social behaviors but not in cognitive abilities, indicating the need to study mechanisms underlying intelligence development in relation to social competencies as sex could differently influence these. Future work should also adopt longitudinal designs and include neurotypical control groups.