Most genetic risk for autism resides with common variation.

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This study shows that although rare genetic changes like 16p11.2 deletions or duplications can strongly affect an individual child, most autism risk overall comes from many common genes acting together, helping families understand that a 16p11.2 diagnosis explains some challenges but that background genetics and environment also matter—supporting a whole‑child, individualized approach rather than expecting the CNV alone to predict everything.