Sensory Processing Subtypes in a Mixed Neurodevelopmental Cohort: Prevalence and Associations with Emotion Dysregulation, Anxiety, and ADHD

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Abstract
Children with autism and other neurodevelopmental concerns (NDC) present an array of sensory processing patterns and frequently encounter challenges with self-regulation, including emotion dysregulation, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms. Adopting a transdiagnostic perspective within the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, this study examined the relationship between clusters of sensory processing phenotypes and differential patterns of self-regulation behaviors. In a sample of 117 participants (8–12 years), this study aimed to: 1) establish the prevalence of self-regulation problems in a community-recruited cohort of children with diverse NDCs; 2) construct data-driven sensory processing latent subtypes; 3) investigate group differences in emotion dysregulation, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms. Results indicated that 40, 20, and 62% of NDC children met clinically concerning thresholds for emotion dysregulation, anxiety, and ADHD, respectively. Second, latent profile analysis identified five sensory processing subtypes categorized by modality: Typical Processing, Intermediate/Mixed, Sensory Seeking (SS), Sensory Under-responsive (SUR), and Sensory Over-Responsive (SOR). Notably, the SOR group exhibited distinctively elevated anxiety scores, while the SS and SUR groups showed heightened ADHD scores. Intriguingly, the SOR, SUR, SS, and Intermediate/Mixed subgroups all demonstrated elevated emotion dysregulation scores, suggesting a potential shared mechanism of emotion dysregulation that might elucidate the connection between sensory processing differences and increased anxiety and ADHD behaviors in children with autism and other NDCs.

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