Emotion regulation, emotionality, and expression of emotions: A link between social skills, behavior, and emotion problems in children with ASD and their peers.
Emotion-regulation gaps link to peer and behavior problems in young autistic children—target these skills in social interventions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team compared emotion regulation, emotionality, and emotional expression in preschool and early-elementary children with autism and typical peers.
Parents filled out rating scales. No teaching or treatment happened.
What they found
Kids with autism showed weaker emotion regulation and less emotional expression, yet higher overall emotionality.
Poor regulation was tied to more peer and behavior problems.
How this fits with other research
Fernandez-Prieto et al. (2021) extends this picture: emotion regulation sits between sensory issues and behavior problems, acting like a bridge.
Ko et al. (2024) and Terroux et al. (2025) look at the wider executive-function umbrella in preschoolers; together they show that both broad EF and the narrower emotion-control piece forecast social and adaptive trouble.
Fong et al. (2020) used a similar parent-rating design in older kids and found self-monitoring, not emotion regulation, predicted social competence, highlighting that different EF skills matter at different ages.
Why it matters
If a child with autism is struggling on the playground, check emotion-regulation skills first. Adding calming, labeling, and coping drills to social-skills groups may give you faster peer gains than social scripts alone.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study aimed to investigate differences between emotion regulation (ER), emotionality, and expression of emotions in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their typically developing (TD) peers; and to examine the potential links between these areas of development with social skills in both groups, as well as with behavioral, emotional, and social problems in ASD. Forty-four children (40 males and 4 females, ages 3 to 7 years) with ASD (n = 22) and their TD peers (n = 22) were included in this study. Mothers reported about their children's ASD symptoms, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. As predicted, children with ASD were described as showing decreased ER, increased emotionality, and decreased expression of emotions when compared to their TD peers. Moreover, in the ASD group, increased social skills were associated with enhanced ER and increased expression of emotions; and in the TD group, increased social skills were correlated with decreased emotionality. Finally, enhanced ER was linked to decreased peer problems, and increased prosocial behaviors; and decreased emotionality was linked to decreased behavior and emotional problems in the ASD group. Implications for further research are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103770