People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at increased risk of developing co-occurring mental health difficulties across the lifespan. Exposure to adverse life events and parental mental health difficulties are known risk factors for developing a range of mental health difficulties. This study investigates the association of adverse life events, parental stress and mental health with emotional and behavioral problems in young adults with ASD. One hundred and fifteen young adults with ASD derived from a population-based longitudinal study were assessed at three time-points (12-, 16-, and 23-year) on questionnaire measures of emotional and behavioral problems. Parent-reported exposure to adverse life events and parental stress/mental health were measured at age 23. We used structural equation modeling to investigate the stability of emotional and behavioral problems over time, and the association between adverse life events and parental stress and mental health and emotional and behavioral outcomes at 23-year. Our results indicate that exposure to adverse life events was significantly associated with increased emotional and behavioral problems in young adults with ASD, while controlling for symptoms in childhood and adolescence. Higher reported parental stress and mental health difficulties were associated with a higher frequency of behavioral, but not emotional problems, and did not mediate the impact of adverse life events. These results suggest that child and adolescent emotional and behavioral problems, exposure to life events and parent stress and mental health are independently associated, to differing degrees, with emotional or behavioral outcomes in early adulthood.

中文翻译：

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不良生活事件和父母心理健康与患有自闭症谱系障碍的年轻人情绪和行为结果的关系


患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的人在一生中同时出现心理健康问题的风险会增加。暴露于不良生活事件和父母心理健康问题是导致一系列心理健康问题的已知危险因素。本研究调查了不良生活事件、父母压力和心理健康与患有自闭症谱系障碍的年轻人的情绪和行为问题之间的关系。一项基于人群的纵向研究对 115 名患有自闭症谱系障碍的年轻人在三个时间点（12 年、16 年和 23 年）进行了情绪和行为问题问卷测量的评估。在 23 岁时测量了父母报告的不良生活事件暴露情况和父母压力/心理健康状况。我们使用结构方程模型来研究情绪和行为问题随时间的稳定性，以及不良生活事件与父母压力和心理健康之间的关联以及 23 岁时的情绪和行为结果。我们的研究结果表明，在控制儿童和青少年时期的症状的同时，暴露于不良生活事件与患有自闭症谱系障碍的年轻人情绪和行为问题的增加显着相关。较高的报告父母压力和心理健康问题与较高的行为问题频率相关，但与情绪问题无关，并且不会介导不良生活事件的影响。这些结果表明，儿童和青少年的情绪和行为问题、生活事件的暴露以及父母的压力和心理健康在不同程度上与成年早期的情绪或行为结果独立相关。