scholarly journals The Role of Emotion Regulation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Author(s):  
Carla A. Mazefsky ◽  
John Herrington ◽  
Matthew Siegel ◽  
Angela Scarpa ◽  
Brenna B. Maddox ◽  
...  
2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (11) ◽  
pp. 3424-3432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Samson ◽  
Antonio Y. Hardan ◽  
Ihno A. Lee ◽  
Jennifer M. Phillips ◽  
James J. Gross

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 931-940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin M Conner ◽  
Susan W White ◽  
Lawrence Scahill ◽  
Carla A Mazefsky

Youth with autism spectrum disorder are at elevated risk for impaired emotion regulation and clinically impairing anxiety. A prior developmental framework posited that impaired emotion regulation leads to co-occurring psychiatric conditions such as anxiety, with outcome determined in part by autism spectrum disorder–specific moderating factors. Using measures developed and validated in autism spectrum disorder, this study evaluated (1) the association between emotion regulation and anxiety in a large, community-based sample of youth with autism spectrum disorder and a wide range of intellectual and verbal abilities and (2) whether greater core autism spectrum disorder symptoms strengthened the association between impaired emotion regulation and anxiety. Parents of 1107 children with a community diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (881 boys; age 6–17 years) participated in an online survey assessing their child’s emotion regulation, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorder symptoms. Emotion regulation impairment significantly predicted whether participants had elevated levels of anxiety, after controlling for demographic variables and autism spectrum disorder symptoms; however, there was no interaction of emotion regulation and autism spectrum disorder symptoms. This study is the first to support the anxiety–emotion regulation association with measures developed and validated specifically for autism spectrum disorder, in a large sample with co-occurring intellectual disability and minimally verbal youth with autism spectrum disorder. Lay abstract Many children with autism spectrum disorder have problems with managing their emotions (emotion regulation) and anxiety. In this study, over 1000 parents completed an online survey which showed that emotion regulation and anxiety are closely linked. Although emotion regulation and anxiety are inter-connected, the results also show that autism symptoms play an important role in anxiety in autism spectrum disorder. Emotion regulation problems may be an important target for the treatment of anxiety in autism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1421-1454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Kalandadze ◽  
Valentina Bambini ◽  
Kari-Anne B. Næss

AbstractIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience difficulty in comprehending metaphors compared to individuals with typical development (TD). However, there is a large variation in the results across studies, possibly related to the properties of the metaphor tasks. This preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis (a) explored the properties of the metaphor tasks used in ASD research, and (b) investigated the group difference between individuals with ASD and TD on metaphor comprehension, as well as the relationship between the task properties and any between-study variation. A systematic search was undertaken in seven relevant databases. Fourteen studies fulfilled our predetermined inclusion criteria. Across tasks, we detected four types of response format and a great variety of metaphors in terms of familiarity, syntactic structure, and linguistic context. Individuals with TD outperformed individuals with ASD on metaphor comprehension (Hedges’ g = −0.63). Verbal explanation response format was utilized in the study showing the largest effect size in the group comparison. However, due to the sparse experimental manipulations, the role of task properties could not be established. Future studies should consider and report task properties to determine their role in metaphor comprehension, and to inform experimental paradigms as well as educational assessment.


Autism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 898-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenna B Maddox ◽  
Patrick Cleary ◽  
Emily S Kuschner ◽  
Judith S Miller ◽  
Anna Chelsea Armour ◽  
...  

Many children with autism spectrum disorder display challenging behaviors. These behaviors are not limited to those with cognitive and/or language impairments. The Collaborative and Proactive Solutions framework proposes that challenging behaviors result from an incompatibility between environmental demands and a child’s “lagging skills.” The primary Collaborative and Proactive Solutions lagging skills—executive function, emotion regulation, language, and social skills—are often areas of weakness for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether these lagging skills are associated with challenging behaviors in youth with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability. Parents of 182 youth with autism spectrum disorder (6–15 years) completed measures of their children’s challenging behaviors, executive function, language, emotion regulation, and social skills. We tested whether the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions lagging skills predicted challenging behaviors using multiple linear regression. The Collaborative and Proactive Solutions lagging skills explained significant variance in participants’ challenging behaviors. The Depression (emotion regulation), Inhibit (executive function), and Sameness (executive function) scales emerged as significant predictors. Impairments in emotion regulation and executive function may contribute substantially to aggressive and oppositional behaviors in school-age youth with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability. Treatment for challenging behaviors in this group may consider targeting the incompatibility between environmental demands and a child’s lagging skills.


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