Date of Award
Summer 2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Amy Vaughan Van Hecke
Second Advisor
Alyson Gerdes
Third Advisor
Lindsay Holly
Abstract
Autistic youth experience anxiety at an increased rate compared to their neurotypical counterparts. The presence of anxiety often amplifies the social and functional difficulties faced by autistic youth, which can exacerbate poor outcomes. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), defined as negative beliefs and reactions to unpredictable or ambiguous situations, has been identified as a key factor to the manifestation of anxiety in autistic populations. The current study aimed to replicate the protocol and results from Rodgers et al. (2023) by conducting the first U.S. pilot study examining the feasibility and efficacy of Coping with Uncertainty in Everyday Situations (CUES©); an 8-week parent-mediated anxiety treatment for autistic youth that focuses on the relationship between IU and anxiety within the context of autism. In a sample of autistic youth (N = 15) ages 8 to 17 (M = 12.33), a series of paired samples t-tests examining change in anxiety and IU from pre-treatment to immediately-post treatment did not produce significant findings. However, when examining attitudes towards CUES© immediately post-treatment, results showed that parents found the intervention to be largely acceptable and helpful. Importantly, results described here are in line with findings from Rodgers et al. (2023), where significant change in outcome variables was not observed until later timepoints (i.e., at the 6-month followup assessment). Possible explanations for the lack of change at immediate-post, limitations, and future directions are discussed.