Guide for parents of adolescents with autism published by Oxford University Press

 

The prevalence of autism as reported by the federal government has increased substantially in recent years. The latest figures, published in April 2025 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), show that among eight-year-olds at selected study sites, 1 in 31 were identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020.

What this reported rise in the prevalence of autism means, and what has caused it, are subjects of fierce debate. Contrary to the resurgence of debunked claims that vaccines may be linked with autism, what is clear is that “much of autism is genetic,” wrote FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). The National Academies of Sciences and Medicine said that “based on our body of work on this topic and the overwhelming scientific consensus, we support the statement that vaccines do not cause autism.”

For adolescents diagnosed with autism, the transition to adulthood is replete with challenges beyond the usual ones that all teens face. To help them, their parents, and other caregivers navigate this terrain, Oxford University Press has published the new book “If Your Adolescent Has Autism: An Essential Resource for Parents,” by Emily J. Willingham, Ph.D. (Oxford University Press, 2025), the latest in a series superintended by APPC for parents of teens who have been diagnosed with a variety of mental health conditions, including depression and bipolar disorder.

This concise, authoritative guide to understanding and helping an autistic teenager offers the latest in evidence-based information about the intersection between adolescence and autism, covering the years from middle school to adulthood, including college and employment. The book features the real-life stories of autistic people and their parents, as well as an extensive list of resources to help them through this transition. This accessible guide addresses autism along with co-occurring medical and mental health issues, social connections, puberty and hygiene, and sexuality.

“This book is a wonderful combination of knowledge and suggestions about how to support adolescents with autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions,” says Catherine L. Lord, Ph.D., George Tarjan Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Education at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. She describes the guide as “relevant for any reader who wants to better understand and support an autistic adolescent anywhere on the spectrum.”

The book is one in a series developed by the Adolescent Mental Health Initiative, a project of  the Annenberg Public Policy Center and The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, under the guidance of series editor Patrick E. Jamieson, Ph.D., director of APPC’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute.

“This book fills an important gap between childhood and adulthood by providing a reader-friendly guide for caregivers of adolescent autistic persons by addressing the specific challenges that autism poses,” Jamieson said.

This month, Oxford University Press will publish an updated, third edition of “Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders,” an extensive overview for clinicians and others of the major mental health disorders that emerge during adolescence. The updated volume, co-edited by Dan Romer, APPC’s research director, includes treatment and prevention approaches in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to greater use of online interventions. The book covers the latest knowledge about problematic internet use, gambling, stigma reduction, and positive youth development, among many other topics.

About the author

Emily J. Willingham is a developmental biologist and journalist who earned a Ph.D. in biology at the University of Texas at Austin, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular developmental genetics. The author of several books, Willingham’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Aeon, Undark, and other outlets. She has been a regular contributor to Scientific American.

About the series

If Your Adolescent Has Autism is the latest in a series developed by the Adolescent Mental Health Initiative for parents, caregivers, teachers and others seeking guidance and support in helping adolescents with a range of adolescent mental health conditions. Other books in the series focus on teens with bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia. Learn more about them and download free PDFs of the older books in the series on the Annenberg Public Policy Center website.

Read an excerpt from “If Your Adolescent Has Autism” on Medium. The book on autism is available in hardcover and paperback, and from online book sellers as an eBook.

If Your Adolescent Has Autism | Oxford University Press | November 2025 | Paperback | $19.99 | ISBN: 9780197513132.

If Your Adolescent Has Autism | Oxford University Press | November 2025 |Hardcover | $99.00 | ISBN: 9780197513149.

Using social media may impair children’s attention

 Children who spend a significant amount of time on social media tend to experience a gradual decline in their ability to concentrate. This is according to a comprehensive study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Pediatrics Open Science, where researchers followed more than 8,000 children from around age 10 through age 14.

The use of screens and digital media has risen sharply in the past 15 years, coinciding with an increase in ADHD diagnoses in Sweden and elsewhere. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Oregon Health & Science University in the USA have now investigated a possible link between screen habits and ADHD-related symptoms.

The study followed 8,324 children aged 9–10 in the USA for four years, with the children reporting how much time they spent on social media, watching TV/videos and playing video games, and their parents assessing their levels of attention and hyperactivity/impulsiveness.

Social media stands out

Children who spent a significant amount of time on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter or Messenger, gradually developed inattention symptoms; there was no such association, however, for watching television or playing video games.

“Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate,” says Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. “Social media entails constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and the mere thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain the association.”

Significance at population level

The association was not influenced by socioeconomic background or a genetic predisposition towards ADHD. Additionally, children who already had symptoms of inattentiveness did not start to use social media more, which suggests that the association leads from use to symptoms and not vice versa.

The researchers found no increase in hyperactive/impulsive behaviour. The effect on concentration was small at the individual level. At a population level, however, it could have a significant impact.

“Greater consumption of social media might explain part of the increase we’re seeing in ADHD diagnoses, even if ADHD is also associated with hyperactivity, which didn’t increase in our study,” says Professor Klingberg.

Well-informed decisions

The researchers stress that the results do not imply that all children who use social media develop concentration difficulties, but there is reason to discuss age limits and platform design. In the study, the average time spent on social media rose from approximately 30 minutes a day for 9-year-olds to 2.5 hours for 13-year-olds, despite the fact that many platforms set their minimum age requirement at 13.

“We hope that our findings will help parents and policymakers make well-informed decisions on healthy digital consumption that support children’s cognitive development,” says the study’s first author Samson Nivins, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet.

The researchers now plan to follow the children after the age of 14 to see if this association holds.

The study was financed by the Swedish Research Council and the Masonic Home for Children in Stockholm Foundation. There are no reported conflicts of interest.

Publication: “Digital media, Genetics and Risk for ADHD Symptoms in Children – a Longitudinal Study”, Samson Nivins, Michael A. Mooney, Joel Nigg, Torkel Klingberg, Pediatrics Open Science, online 8 December 2025, doi: 10.1542/pedsos.2025-000922.

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Journal

Pediatrics Open Science

DOI

10.1542/pedsos.2025-000922 

Student writing has evolved in the AI era

Style, sentiment, and quality of undergraduate writing in the AI era: A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of 4,820 authentic empirical reports

 A University of Warwick-led analysis of almost 5,000 student-authored reports suggests that student writing has become more polished and formal since the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022— but grades have remained stable.

Published in Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, the new study examines student reports submitted over a 10-year period and finds that the ‘language’ in students’ writing has become more sophisticated, formal, and positive since 2022, coinciding with the widespread availability of generative AI (GenAI).

GenAI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot are now widely used across higher education with a recent sector-wide survey showing that up to 88% of students report using ChatGPT for assessments.

This new analysis of 4,820 reports, containing 17 million words, is one of the largest of its kind. The experiment does not assess individual student’s AI use but instead explores how writing has evolved at a cohort level during a period of rapid technological change.

It found that since 2022, writing sentiment has become more positive overall, regardless of the substantive content of the reports. This mirrors well-documented positivity tendencies in many GenAI systems, which are designed to produce polite, constructive-sounding responses.

Dr. Matthew Mak, Assistant Professor in Psychology, University of Warwick and first author said: “The tone of students’ writing appears more positive, in line with ChatGPT's output, which is not inherently a good or bad thing, but it does raise concerns about the possibility of AI tools homogenising students’ voices.

“There are also psychological studies showing that we tend to be less critical when we are in a positive mood; if students constantly receive GenAI output, it raises important questions about how these AI tools shape students’ critical thinking in the long term.”

The study also found significant increases in formality and range of vocabulary after ChatGPT’s launch. These stylistic features would be expected to appear after many years of writing experience, making it unlikely this is a natural development in students’ writing abilities nor does it indicate corresponding improvements in their underlying writing skills.

Additionally, some words frequently associated with AI-generated text, such as “delve” and “intricate”, rose sharply in use until 2024 before plummeting in 2025, suggesting that students may have moderated their use—to make their writing read less AI-assisted.

To better understand these trends, the researchers also asked ChatGPT to rewrite reports submitted before ChatGPT was launched in 2022. These rewritten reports exhibited similar shifts in tone and style as in those submitted after ChatGPT’s launch, providing additional evidence that the observed cohort-level changes are influenced by students’ engagement with GenAI tools.

Importantly, despite these stylistic shifts, there was no corresponding changes in grades or examiner feedback. This may suggest that core academic skills — such as critical reasoning, interpretation, and argumentation — remain central to assessment and have, at least, not yet been overshadowed by changes in surface-level style brought about by ChatGPT.

Professor Lukasz Walasek, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, author of the paper added: “Our findings highlight a transition in writing style that is likely happening across sectors. It is vital that institutions understand how tools like GenAI interact with learning and communication. This will help universities design assessments and guidance that support students to use these technologies responsibly and effectively.”

The findings present opportunities for institutions to rethink assessment design, AI policy, and to support students in developing strong, authentic writing voices in an AI-rich world.

The paper ‘Style, sentiment, and quality of undergraduate writing in the AI era: A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of 4,820 authentic empirical reports’ is published in Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2025.100507

School reopening during COVID-19 = improvement in children’s mental health

 Key points:

• Children whose schools reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic had significantly decreased mental health diagnoses relative to children whose schools remained closed, according to a new study of schools across California. This included fewer diagnoses of depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Girls’ mental health benefited the most.
• Mental health care spending decreased by up to 11% by the ninth month after a school’s reopening.
• The study is among the largest and most data-rich examinations of how school closures impacted children’s mental health during the pandemic. 

Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic was linked with significantly lower rates of mental health diagnoses among children, including anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a drop in related health care spending, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues. The benefits were especially pronounced among girls.

The study was published Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Epidemiology.

“Our results provide solid evidence to parents, educators, and policymakers that in-person school plays a crucial role in kids’ wellbeing,” said senior author Rita Hamad, professor of social epidemiology and public policy. “The findings offer lessons for future public health emergencies and provide insight into why mental health worsened for children during the pandemic.”

Previous studies have established that youth mental health declined during the pandemic, and some additionally hinted at the mental health benefits of in-person school during this period. Most of those studies, however, relied on surveys and anecdotes from small study populations. 

For this study, the researchers analyzed health diagnoses and spending data among 185,735 children, ages five to 18 years between March 2020 and June 2021, focusing on whether children received mental health care or filled a prescription for a mental health diagnosis such as anxiety, depression, or ADHD. These children lived in 24 counties and 224 school districts across California, where schools stayed closed longer than almost any other state and opened on a staggered basis, creating a natural experiment. The data was procured from the Healthcare Integrated Research Database, a large commercial administrative database with individual-level health insurance claims data, and administrative school-level data from the California Department of Education.

The study found that the proportion of children with a mental health diagnosis increased from 2.8% to 3.5% over the study period, but that children whose schools reopened had decreased mental health diagnoses relative to children whose schools remained closed. By the ninth month following a school reopening, children’s probability of being diagnosed with a mental health condition was reduced by 43% compared with the period before schools reopened. This included fewer diagnoses of depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Relatedly, health care spending associated with mental health diagnoses decreased. By the ninth month following a school’s reopening, non-drug medical spending decreased by 11%; spending on psychiatric drugs decreased by 8%; and spending on ADHD-specific drugs decreased by 5%. The study also found that girls’ mental health benefited more from school reopenings than boys’.

The researchers posited several potential reasons for why school closings may have impacted children’s mental health, including changes in social interaction; irregular sleep patterns; increased screen time; less balanced diets; learning difficulties; familial difficulties due to economic hardship or increased time spent at home together; and less access to mental health services normally available through school.

“As we consider future public health emergencies, this study suggests we need to prioritize safe school reopenings and ensure children have access to the social and emotional resources that schools provide,” Hamad said. “Policies should focus not only on infection control, but also on the mental wellbeing of children, recognizing that schools are a critical part of their support system.”

The researchers noted that the study population included only children in relatively higher-income areas in California, who were enrolled in commercial insurance and had relatively better access to health care. Further study is needed to assess the relationship between school reopening and mental health among marginalized groups, among whom effects may have been even greater.

Article information

“Effect of School Reopenings on Children’s Mental Health during COVID-19: Quasi- Experimental Evidence from California,” Pelin Ozluk, Jeff Romine, Gosia Sylwestrzak, Rita Hamad, Epidemiology, December 8, 2025, doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001930

Sport in middle childhood can breed respect for authority in adolescence

 

PYoung adolescents, especially boys, who participated in organized sports between ages 6 and 10 are less likely to defy their parents, teachers and other authority figures, a new study by researchers in Canada and Italy suggests.

“Oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) is often under-diagnosed and can co-occur with other developmental disorders," said the study's lead author Matteo Privitera, a doctoral student at the University of Pavia (UofP), supervised by Linda Pagani, a professor at Université de Montréal's School of Psycho-Education.

"Symptoms of the disorder include persistent patterns of irritability, defiance and hostility toward authority figures," he said. "The disorder is over-represented by boys and often accompanies other neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and learning disabilities."

Importantly, "these behaviours can interfere with learning, relationships and long-term mental health," he added. "In our study, we wanted to look into the symptoms and try to identify accessible, community-based strategies that foster more adaptive behaviour in children.”

Privitera and his research team examined data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a population-based cohort of children born in 1997 or 1998 whose data is curated by the Institut de la statistique du Québec.

The study focused on 1,492 boys and girls who participated in organized extracurricular sports between ages 6 and 10. At ages 10 and 12, the same children self-reported on symptoms of oppositional-defiant behaviour.

Those sports included any supervised by an adult (coach or instructor), structured according to established rules, practised in a group and involving a competitive element. Factors such as family income, maternal education and the child's behavioral profiles were considered and their influence was accounted for in the analyses.

Fewer symptoms in boys

“Boys who consistently participated in organized sport showed significantly fewer subsequent oppositional-defiant symptoms at both ages compared to boys with low or inconsistent participation,” said Privitera. “Sport may serve as a natural and influential context for learning self-regulation, cooperation and respect for rules.”

The research team, which included fellow UdeM doctoral candidate Kianoush Harandian and UofP professors Luca Correale and Laura Fusar-Poli, used conservative longitudinal statistical procedures to estimate prospective associations, while adjusting for early childhood behavioural symptoms and family background.

No significant associations between sport and ODD were found for girls. This was not surprising given that boys generally show more oppositional behavior in middle childhood, the researchers said.

“Our findings support the idea that structured extracurricular activities can promote behavioural resilience,” said Harandian. “Sport offers a supervised and socially engaging environment that may help boys internalize adaptive behavioural norms.”

The study has implications for public-health and education policies, Pagani added.

“Encouraging sustained sport participation in middle childhood may reduce the burden of disruptive behaviour disorders and support long-term well-being," she said. "It’s a simple, actionable strategy with benefits for families, schools and communities."

About this study

"Game changer: how middle childhood sport predicts reduced oppositional-defiant behavior by early adolescence," by Matteo Privitera, Linda Pagani et al., was published Dec. 9, 2025 in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Matteo Privitera, lead author of the study, is affiliated with the Department of Public Health, Experimental Medicine and Forensic Sciences and the Human Locomotion Lab at the University of Pavia. Co-authors include Kianoush Harandian (École de Psychoéducation, Université de Montréal), Luca Correale (Public Health, Experimental Medicine and Forensic Sciences, University of Pavia), Laura Fusar-Poli (Psychiatry, University of Pavia), and Linda S. Pagani (École de Psychoéducation, Université de Montréal).

Parental attitudes linked to college binge drinking

 

 College students who binge drink may be acting on influences they brought from home, a new Washington State University-led study suggests.

A recent survey shows that students who binge drink more than other students tend to have grown up in a home with more permissive attitudes toward drinking. Those students are also more likely to join Greek-affiliated organizations like fraternities or sororities.

In a study published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, researchers surveyed parents and students about drinking attitudes and behaviors, especially binge drinking. They found that parents of students who joined fraternities or sororities were more permissive of alcohol use prior to students leaving home for college.

“Previous research has shown that greater parental permissiveness, or approval, of student drinking is linked to greater alcohol use among college students,” said Kristi Morrison, lead author on the paper and a PhD student in WSU’s prevention science program. “We explored the relationship between parental approval and student Greek affiliation and found that parents of students who join Greek organizations tend to be more permissive of binge drinking even before their students come to college.”

Students who join fraternities or sororities are at a higher risk of binge drinking and the negative consequences, such alcohol poisoning, blacking out, and more, that can follow, Morrison said.

“Understanding risk factors, like parental permissiveness, gives us targets for interventions that can reduce risky behavior,” she said.

Morrison and her co-authors asked parents, both before their students left for college and during their first year of college, how wrong they felt it would be if their student engaged in “heavy episodic drinking,” defined as four or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion for women and five or more for men. The researchers also asked students about their perception of their parents’ permissiveness.

“The initial transition to college is a very high-risk time,” said Jennifer Duckworth, paper co-author and assistant professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development. “Studies like this can help universities identify areas where interventions can be developed and implemented to reduce binge drinking.”

Morrison and Duckworth suggest that parenting programs that encourage parents to set clear guidelines, especially before students leave home, support their children’s decision-making, and talk about the risks of binge drinking could positively impact students. They pointed to the Letting Go and Staying Connected program, which originated at WSU and has spread to nine other universities across Washington, as an important tool for educating parents.

“Risk factors look different across groups,” Duckworth said. “Parental permissiveness is one risk factor that can be changed relatively easily. It’s important to help parents think about what it means to be less permissive toward alcohol use. When parents talk with their children about the risks of binge drinking and set clear expectations, it can have a real impact. Even after students leave home, parents continue to play a powerful role in shaping how young adults approach drinking.”

Even well-intentioned efforts to promote “safe” drinking can sometimes send the wrong message, signaling that binge drinking is acceptable.

“Parents may think having their teens drink at home in a protected environment is safer, but it conveys an approval of alcohol use,” said Morrison, who plans to earn her doctorate in two years. “Research shows that when parents are less approving of alcohol use, students tend to drink less.”

Additional co-authors on the paper include Brittany Cooper and Laura Hill from WSU, Matthew Bumpus from the Innovia Foundation, and Martie Skinner and Kevin Haggerty from the University of Washington.

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Journal

Behavioral Sciences

DOI

10.3390/bs15111488 

Note- taking alone or combined with large language models helps students understand and remember better

 

A new study suggests that traditional learning activities like making notes remain critical for students’ reading comprehension and retention, while also suggesting that large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, could be a useful tool for helping students clarify, explore, and contextualise learning material.

Although many students are already using LLMs, there is a lack of research on the impact of generative AI on the fundamental processes of learning.

The study by Cambridge University Press & Assessment and Microsoft Research, which is published today (Thursday) in the journal Computers & Education , is one of the first randomised classroom experiments to investigate how LLMs affect students’ reading comprehension and retention.

The research involved 405 secondary school students aged 14-15 attending seven different schools across England.

The students were asked to study texts covering topics from the UK’s national History curriculum: one about apartheid in South Africa, and the other about the Cuban missile crisis.

The students were divided into two groups. One group was asked to study one text with an LLM (ChatGPT 3.5 turbo) and another text by writing notes. The second group was also asked to study one of the texts with the LLM, but, for the other text, they were asked to combine using the LLM and making notes. In all LLM conditions, students were given a brief tutorial and allowed to use the tool however they liked.

Three days later, and without advance warning, the students were asked questions about the two texts designed to see how well they understood and remembered the information. For example: What horrific event happened at the Soweto Youth Uprising in 1976? And: Explain the role of the Soviet Union in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After both the study and test sessions, students were asked about the task, for example whether they enjoyed it or found it interesting.

The results suggest that either making notes or making notes combined with using an LLM, are better than just using the LLM alone for helping students understand and remember new information. However, students enjoyed using the LLM to engage with and explore relevant topics beyond the text.

The study’s first author, Dr Pia Kreijkes, a senior researcher at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, UK, said: “We know that students are using chatbots and other AI tools, including to help them with their schoolwork. However, there has been very limited research on how LLM use influences students’ ability to understand and remember information. Our study shows that students enjoyed using AI chatbots but note taking was more effective for learning outcomes

“Our findings can help guide the use of LLMs for learning. In particular, they indicate that students should take notes separately from using LLMs to avoid copying the LLM. They also indicate that students should receive training and guidance on how to use LLMs to support active and constructive learning.”

“Teachers could also benefit from their students’ use of LLMs. For example, in the future, teachers may be able to leverage insights from students’ LLM interactions to understand where support is needed and tailor class materials accordingly.” 

Dr Jake Hofman Senior Principal Researcher from Microsoft Research said: “I was struck by how many students used the LLM to try to deepen their understanding — asking about historical context, clarifying unfamiliar references, and exploring the significance of key events. Rather than viewing traditional learning techniques, like note-taking, and newer generative-AI approaches as competing alternatives, we should view them as complementary.”
 

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Journal

Computers & Education

DOI

10.1016/j.compedu.2025.105514