Description:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background:</jats:title><jats:p>While growing literature is stressing the link between Autistic Traits (AT) and trauma-/stress-related disorders, in both conditions significant differences have been separately reported.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objective:</jats:title><jats:p>This study aims to evaluate the relationship between AT and trauma-/stress-related symptoms with respect to sex.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods:</jats:title><jats:p>178 university students were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5, the Trauma and Loss Spectrum (TALS) and the Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS). In order to evaluate sex differences in trauma-/stress-related symptoms among subjects with higher or lower AT,<jats:bold>t</jats:bold>he sample was split in two groups with an equal number of subjects on the basis of the median score reported on AdAS Spectrum (“AdAS high scorers” and “AdAS low scorers”).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p>Females reported significantly higher TALS total score,<jats:italic>Loss events</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>Grief reaction</jats:italic>domain scores than males in the whole sample, while AdAS high scorers reported significantly higher TALS total and domain scores than AdAS low scorers. A significant interaction between high/low AdAS score and sex emerged for TALS domains, with females scoring significantly higher than males only among AdAS low scorers, specifically on<jats:italic>Loss events</jats:italic>,<jats:italic>Grief reaction</jats:italic>,<jats:italic>Re-experiencing</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>Personal characteristics/Risk factors</jats:italic>domains. Finally, among AdAS high scorers a significantly higher rate of subjects fulfilled symptomatological criteria for PTSD than among AdAS low scorers, without sex differences.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion:</jats:title><jats:p>Our results confirm a significant relationship between AT and trauma-/stress-related symptoms, which seems to prevail on sex differences among high-risk subjects.</jats:p></jats:sec>