Correlations between temperament and autistic trait measures – Quantitative or qualitative differences between children with and without autism spectrum disorders?. (August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Omelańczuk, Iwona; Pisula, Ewa
• Is Part Of: Research in autism spectrum disorders. Volume 76(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-08
• Subjects: Autistic traits -- Autism spectrum disorder -- Temperament; Autism spectrum disorders -- Periodicals; 616.85882005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2020.101602
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-9467

Abstract

Highlights: Children with ASD differ from typically developing peers in emotionality, sociability, activity, and shyness. There are differences between these groups in variance in autistic traits, sociability, activity, and shyness. Internal consistency of measures of autistic traits and shyness differ between groups. The relationship between shyness and autistic traits is stronger in the ASD group than in the non-clinical group. The results do not definitively confirm the spectrum hypothesis in regards to temperament and autistic traits. Abstract: Background: The study tested the spectrum hypothesis, which claims that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with normal intelligence differ in terms of temperament from typically developing peers quantitatively and not qualitatively. Severity of autistic traits was also taken into account and the question whether temperament may serve as predictor for autistic traits was tested. Methods: Participants included 352 children, aged 4–11 years, from the general population and 79 children with an ASD diagnosis. Parents completed questionnaires about the severity of autistic traits and temperament of their children. Results: Quantitatively, differences in means were found between ASD and non-clinical groups in terms of emotionality, sociability, activity and shyness. Qualitatively, in the ASD group, there was higher variance in autistic traits, as well as sociability, activity, and shyness. There were also differences between ASD and non-clinical groups in internal consistency with respect to autistic traits and shyness but not activity, sociability and emotionality. In addition, the relationship between shyness and autistic traits was stronger in the ASD group than in the non-clinical group. Conclusions: The results do not definitively confirm the spectrum hypothesis but further research is needed with better control for the severity of ASD symptoms in study groups and more sophisticated statistical analysis methods.