Sensory Subgroups in Autistic Children: Cluster Analysis of Sensory Profiles and Their Relationship to Emotional-Behavioral Outcomes and Parenting Stress

This study used cluster analysis to identify distinct sensory subgroups among 225 autistic children based on sensory processing profiles, examining how these subgroups differ in emotional-behavioral manifestations and parenting stress levels compared to non-autistic controls. Results indicated that auditory filtering difficulties (68.44%) and low energy/weakness (66.67%) were the most prevalent sensory differences in autistic children, with implications for understanding clinical heterogeneity and developing targeted interventions.