Lukito: Needed because existing measures of adolescent mental health experiences are based on neurotypical experiences, and overly focused on emotional regulation difficulties, and ignore context surrounding the experiences.

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Lukito: They examined 25 common upsetting events leading to emotional burden, for instance "school staff not understanding your reactions."

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Lukito: Note that this study included more autistic females, and the ND participants were predominantly white.

Found that emotional burdens are a strong predictor of depression and anxiety in these populations.

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Steve Lukito at #INSAR2025

The MESI self report - My Emotions in School Inventory - measures emotional burden.

Autistic and/or ADHD children experienced more and more intense commonly upsetting events.

Lukito: Relative to neurotypical peers at school, autistic and ADHD adolescents experienced more upsetting events, higher intensity of upsets, and higher emotional burdens.

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