Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Theodore Bartholomew

Reader 2

Rachel Fenning

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2026 Eden O Sweet

Abstract

Significant behavioral overlaps in feeding patterns are observed among individuals with eating disorders (EDs) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These behavioral similarities can blur diagnostic boundaries, contribute to diagnostic overshadowing, and consequently increase the risk of misdiagnosis and the implementation of ineffective treatment approaches. The proposed study addresses the risk of diagnostic overshadowing as it relates to the ambiguous distinction between autism-driven feeding behaviors and clinically significant eating disorders (ED) within the autistic population. Although the literature has acknowledged behavioral similarities between ASD and EDs, limited research has systematically examined how they impact diagnostic practices and influence the likelihood of diagnostic overshadowing. The present author aims to address a gap in the literature pertaining to the behavioral intersection that exists between EDs and ASD-driven food behaviors, through proposing an experiment to better understand diagnostic processes and target potential shortcomings in current clinical practices. The present study will examine diagnostic inter-rater reliability among a diverse sample of licensed California clinicians (n=150) as they evaluate a single vignette of a client presenting clinically significant ED symptoms, with the individual’s autism diagnostic status manipulated experimentally (autistic vs. allistic) to test whether prior knowledge of an autism diagnosis influences clinician judgment and diagnostic decision-making.

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