Our team, in collaboration with Can Misses Hospital in Ibiza, has published a new study in Frontiers in Psychology examining how symptom severity and gender influence the age of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis (Sánchez Pedroche et al., 2025).
Despite advancements in ASD research, there are still challenges in detecting the condition in girls. This preliminary study explores whether the age at the time of diagnosis of ASD in girls is related to a higher severity index compared to boys. The study included 202 children from the Balearic Islands (52 girls), with an average age of approximately 5 years.
The findings reveal that, regardless of gender, greater symptom severity is associated with earlier diagnosis. However, girls tend to be diagnosed later than boys and often present with more severe symptoms by the time they receive a diagnosis.
These results highlight the need for more sensitive diagnostic tools that consider gender-specific characteristics, in order to ensure earlier identification and support for girls with autism.
Reference
Sánchez-Pedroche A, Aguilar-Mediavilla E, Valera-Pozo M, Adrover-Roig D and Valverde-Gómez M (2025) A preliminary study on the relationship between symptom severity and age of diagnosis in females versus males with autistic spectrum disorder. Front. Psychol. 16:1472646. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1472646