Understanding Autism

Completed Project

Team
- Peter Bearman Leadership, 2007-2021
- Christine Fountain Leadership, 2018-2021
- Alix Winter
- Keely Cheslack-Postava
Funded by
- National Institutes of Health 2018–2021
- National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award 2007–2012

Understanding Autism is devoted to understanding the factors that have led to the increase in autism prevalence over the last four decades.

Since receiving the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pioneer Award, Incite Institute has made significant progress in ascertaining individual and community-level factors that are associated with an increased risk of autism.

Specifically, among other contributions, we have found evidence that points to new understandings of the expression of risk factors, of the role of de novo mutations in increasing risk, of spatial clustering at birth and diagnosis, which points to social dynamics as underlying risks of diagnosis, and of changes to the diagnostic pathway in relation to intellectual disabilities.

We rapidly expanded our data structures, analyzing new mechanisms associated with increased risk of autism and understanding in greater detail the developmental trajectories of persons with autism. In addition to quantitative data, the project collected life histories from individuals who have children with autism.

Later NIH support was for a project that contributes to public health by building and analyzing a unique population-level dataset designed to assess the association between Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and its subtypes and autism, intellectual disability, and cerebral palsy as well as investigate heterogeneity in risk and the factors that may affect the associations. This work better enables individuals and their health care providers to weigh the risks and benefits of ART procedures and to identify potential modifiable risk factors for autism and other developmental disabilities.

Related Works

open website

Peter Bearman, Keely Cheslack-Postava, Christine Fountain, Alix Winter, "Developmental Trajectories of Autism", Pediatrics, August 24, 2023
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Peter Bearman, Keely Cheslack-Postava, Christine Fountain, Alix Winter, "The social patterning of autism diagnoses reversed in California between 1992 and 2018", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, October 8, 2020
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Peter Bearman, Ka-Yuet Liu, Keely Cheslack-Postava, Ezra Susser , "Can Sibling Sex Ratios be used as a valid test of the prenatal androgen hypothesis of autism spectrum disorders?", PLOS ONE, October 23, 2015
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Keely Cheslack-Postava, Ezra Susser, Kayuet Liu, Peter S. Bearman, "Human Reproduction: Association of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Treatment and Parental Infertility Diagnosis with Autism in ART-Conceived Children", Human Reproduction, October 23, 2015
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Peter Bearman, Ka-Yuet Liu, Kinga Makovi, Alix Winter, "The Population Level Impacts of Differential Fertility Behavior of Parents of Children with Autism", Sociological Science, August 10, 2015
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Peter Bearman, Sheree L. Boulet, Christine Fountain, Denise J. Jamieson, Dmitry M. Kissin, Catherine Rice, Laura A. Schieve, Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, "Does Autism Diagnosis Age or Symptom Severity Differ Among Children According to Whether Assisted Reproductive Technology was used to Achieve Pregnancy?", Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, May 22, 2015
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Christine Fountain, Yujia Zhang, Dmitry M Kissin, Laura A Schieve, Denise J Jamieson, Catherine Rice, Peter Bearman , "Association Between Assisted Reproductive Technology Conception and Autism in California, 1997–2007", May 1, 2015
open website

Peter Bearman, Christine Fountain, Denise J. Jamieson, Dmitry M. Kissin, Catherine Rice, Laura A. Schieve, Yujia Zhang, "Association Between Assisted Reproductive Technology Conception and Autism in California", American Journal of Public Health, April 8, 2015
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Soumya Mazumdar, Ka-Yuet Liu, Ezra Susser, Peter Bearman, "Spatial Clusters of Autism Births and Diagnoses Point to Contextual Drivers of Increased Prevalence", Social Science and Medicine, October 1, 2013
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Kayuet Liu, Peter S. Bearman, "Focal points, endogenous processes, and exogenous shocks in the autism epidemic", Sage Journals, September 19, 2012
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Ka-Yuet Liu, Peter Bearman, "Focal Points, Endogenous Processes and Exogenous Shocks in the Autism Epidemic", Sociological Methods and Research, September 19, 2012
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Soumya Mazumdar, Ka-Yuet Liu, Ezra Susser, Peter Bearman, "The Disappearing Seasonality of Autism Conceptions in California", PLOS ONE, July 30, 2012
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Christine Fountain, Alix Winter, Peter Bearman, "Six Developmental Trajectories Characterize Children with Autism", Pediatrics, April 2, 2012
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Alan Zarembo, "Autism boom: an epidemic of disease or of discovery?", Los Angeles Times, December 11, 2011
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Katherine M Keyes, Ezra Susser, Keely Cheslack-Postava, Christine Fountain, Kayuet Liu, Peter S Bearman, "Cohort effects explain the increase in autism diagnosis among children born from 1992 to 2003 in California", Oxford Academic, December 7, 2011
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Christine Fountain, Peter Bearman, "Risk as Social Context: Immigration Policy and Autism in California", Sociological Forum, June 1, 2011
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Marissa King, Peter Bearman, "Socioeconomic Status and the Increased Prevalence of Autism in California", American Sociological Review, May 17, 2011
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Keely Cheslack-Postava, Ka-Yuet Liu, Peter Bearman, "Closely spaced pregnancies are associated with increased odds of autism in California sibling births", Pediatrics, January 10, 2011
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Christine Fountain, Marissa King, Peter Bearman, "Age of diagnosis for autism: individual and community factors across 10 birth cohorts", Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, October 25, 2010
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Peter Bearman, "Just-so Stories: Vaccines, Autism, and the Single-bullet Disorder", National Institutes of Health, August 17, 2010
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Ka-Yuet Liu, Noam Zerubauvel, Peter Bearman, "Social Demographic Change and Autism", Demography, May 1, 2010
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Soumya Mazumdar, Marissa King, Ka-Yuet Liu, Noam Zerubavel, Peter Bearman, "The Spatial Structure of Autism in California, 1993-2001", Health and Place, May 1, 2010
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Ka-Yuet Liu, Marissa King, Peter Bearman, "Social Influence and the Autism Epidemic", American Journal of Sociology, March 1, 2010
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Marissa King, Peter Bearman, "Diagnostic change and the increased prevalence of autism", International Journal of Epidemiology, September 7, 2009
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Marissa King, Christine Fountain, Diana Dakhlallah, Peter Bearman, "Estimated Autism Risk and Older Reproductive Age", American Journal of Public Health, September 1, 2009
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Peter Bearman, "National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award", National Institutes of Health, August 6, 2009

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