Anxiety Prevalence in Youth with Autism: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Methodological and Sample Moderators

Research on the prevalence of anxiety in children and adolescents with autism remains fragmented due to a reliance on help-seeking populations and differences in anxiety assessment. We present the pooled findings from 15 community studies (N = 4459) sourced from the Embase, PubMed, and PsycINFO databases (1970–2023). Equally high rates of anxiety symptoms and disorders were identified via self-report (33%, CI = 25 to 40%) and diagnostic interview (19%, CI = 7 to 40%). Higher IQ and male gender were identified as significant covariates, although these results may reflect sampling biases. The findings highlight the need for routine screening, with multiple informants, and improved sampling methods. Protocol was registered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/7mtca/).