Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Dr. Connor Kerns discusses current research on the prevalence, sources, and impact of traumatic experiences in autistic people.
Free certificates of participation are available upon successful completion of a brief knowledge quiz at autism.org/autism-and-trauma-research-updates
Dr. Connor Kerns has conducted and published studies on a broad array of topics, including the role of paternal age in ASD risk, the co-occurrence of childhood psychopathologies, and differential predictors of CBT efficacy for child anxiety. Her present research focuses on the overlap, assessment, and treatment of anxiety and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Her ongoing projects aim to explore the varied presentation and phenomenology of anxiety in ASD and the implications of this variation for effective anxiety measurement and treatment. Dr. Kerns is also preparing to extend this work to the understudied area of traumatic events and their sequelae in youth with ASD. Another area of interest is the use of technology to facilitate the dissemination of empirically based treatments. Dr. Kerns is currently working to develop cost-effective, computer-assisted CBTs for youth with ASD and anxiety, interactive social stories to improve skill generalization in ASD, and video-enhanced ASD screening and educational tools. Her long-term goals include developing a parsimonious model of psychiatric co-occurrence to inform the design and dissemination of cross-diagnostic assessments and treatments that will improve child well-being and development.
In this webinar:
0:30 – Disclosures and introductions
2:45 – Childhood adversity and trauma
8:00 – Experience vs diagnosis
13:00 – Complexities of diagnosis PTSD in autism
22:25 – Intersection of autism and trauma
24:00 – Childhood Adversity & Social Stress Questionnaire (CASSQ)
28:15 – Stress symptom subscale
35:45 – Preliminary results
40:35 – Adversity history profiles
47:00 – Validity and discussion
50:30 – Q&A
Dr. Connor Kerns discusses current research on the prevalence, sources, and impact of traumatic experiences in autistic people.
Free certificates of participation are available upon successful completion of a brief knowledge quiz at autism.org/autism-and-trauma-research-updates
Dr. Connor Kerns has conducted and published studies on a broad array of topics, including the role of paternal age in ASD risk, the co-occurrence of childhood psychopathologies, and differential predictors of CBT efficacy for child anxiety. Her present research focuses on the overlap, assessment, and treatment of anxiety and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Her ongoing projects aim to explore the varied presentation and phenomenology of anxiety in ASD and the implications of this variation for effective anxiety measurement and treatment. Dr. Kerns is also preparing to extend this work to the understudied area of traumatic events and their sequelae in youth with ASD. Another area of interest is the use of technology to facilitate the dissemination of empirically based treatments. Dr. Kerns is currently working to develop cost-effective, computer-assisted CBTs for youth with ASD and anxiety, interactive social stories to improve skill generalization in ASD, and video-enhanced ASD screening and educational tools. Her long-term goals include developing a parsimonious model of psychiatric co-occurrence to inform the design and dissemination of cross-diagnostic assessments and treatments that will improve child well-being and development.
In this webinar:
0:30 – Disclosures and introductions
2:45 – Childhood adversity and trauma
8:00 – Experience vs diagnosis
13:00 – Complexities of diagnosis PTSD in autism
22:25 – Intersection of autism and trauma
24:00 – Childhood Adversity & Social Stress Questionnaire (CASSQ)
28:15 – Stress symptom subscale
35:45 – Preliminary results
40:35 – Adversity history profiles
47:00 – Validity and discussion
50:30 – Q&A
