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Letter to the Editor: 'Key links between autistic characteristics and anxiety symptoms in autistic children and youth': a response to Lai et al. (2026)

Lookup NU author(s): Emerita Professor Jacqueline Rodgers

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Abstract

© 2026 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. This Response addresses methodological and conceptual issues raised in a Letter to the Editor concerning our recently published network analysis of autism characteristics and anxiety symptoms in autistic children and youth. We clarify concerns related to potential conceptual overlap between autistic characteristics and anxiety-related symptoms and address questions concerning the multinational nature of the dataset. We also summarize sensitivity and stability analyses showing that the identified bridge nodes are robust to variation in regularization parameters and operational definitions. Together, these clarifications support the interpretation of the reported network findings.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Zaidman-Zait A, Hollocks MJ, Kerns CM, Magiati I, McVey AJ, Smith IM, Bedford R, Bennett T, Duku E, Georgiades S, Richard A, Vaillancourt T, Zwaigenbaum L, Hardan A, Libove R, Rodgers J, South M, Simonoff E, Van Hecke A, Uljarevic M, Szatmari P

Publication type: Letter

Publication status: Published

Journal: Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Year: 2026

Pages: Epub ahead of print

Online publication date: 09/06/2026

Acceptance date: 05/01/2026

ISSN (print): 1475-357X

ISSN (electronic): 1475-3588

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc

URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.70098

DOI: 10.1111/camh.70098

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