Clinician-caregiver informant discrepancy is associated with sex, diagnosis age, and intervention use among autistic children.

Lay abstract: In some cases, a clinician's perceptions of a child's autism-related behaviors are not the same as the child's caregiver's perceptions. Identifying how these discrepancies relate to the characteristics of the child is critical for ensuring that diagnosis procedures are unbiased and suitable for all children. This study examined whether discrepancies between clinician and caregiver reports of autism features related to the child's sex at birth. We also explored how the discrepancies related to the age at which the child received their autism diagnosis and how much intervention they received. We found that clinicians rated autism features higher than caregivers for boys and rated autism features lower than caregivers for girls. In addition, lower clinician relative to parent ratings was related to being diagnosed at an older age and receiving less intervention. These findings suggest that there is more to learn about the presentation of autism-related behaviors in girls. When caregiver and clinician ratings of autism features do not align, it may be important to consider caregivers' ratings to obtain a more accurate picture of the child's autism features and the support they may need.