Introduction: Research focussing upon anxiety in children on the autism spectrum has mainly been informed through caregiver and professional reports with comparatively less research reporting the perspectives of children on the spectrum. The aim of this study was to document children's descriptions and experiences of anxiety, the support they access, and how this may differ across home, school, and community contexts.

Methods: Children on the autism spectrum (N = 78) aged 6–13 years completed an online qualitative survey about their signs of anxiety across home, school, and community settings.

Results: Nearly all children (98.7%) reported experiencing anxiety in at least one setting, with 41.9% of children reporting they experienced anxiety across the three contexts. There was wide variability in children's descriptions of their signs of anxiety (39 categories) which were classified under eight broad areas. The proportion of children who reported having someone to seek out to help reduce their anxiety differed across home (87%), school (74%), and community (48%) settings.

Implications: Children on the autism spectrum report diverse signs of anxiety and recognise variability in their signs across contexts. This highlights the importance of not only documenting anxiety, but getting to know the presentation of anxiety for each individual in each context.