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Research exploring the nature of anxiety symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has thus far focused on children and adolescents, providing evidence for both typical and atypical anxiety symptom presentations associated with ASD. This study builds on previous research by focusing on young adults, and comparing anxiety presentation between individuals with ASD and non-ASD individuals with anxiety disorders. We anticipated that while the non-ASD group would report only typical anxiety symptoms, and the ASD group would report both typical and atypical presentations of anxiety symptoms.

Ten individuals with ASD and anxiety (M = 21.8 years, SD = 6.76), and 10 individuals with anxiety (M = 24.4 years, SD = 4.17) participated in focus groups. Participants responded to semi-structured interview questions specifically developed using the DSM-5 criteria for each of the …