How temperament and personality contribute to the maladjustment of children with autism.
Temperament links to behavior problems the same way across mild and severe autism, so target those traits in every child.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at the kids with autism. They used parent checklists to rate each child’s temperament and personality.
They split the kids into two groups: high-symptom and low-symptom. Then they checked how temperament scores matched up with behavior problems.
What they found
Almost every temperament trait was more extreme in the autism group. The only exception was dominance.
High- and low-symptom kids differed most on sociability and internal distress. Yet the way traits linked to problems looked the same in both groups.
How this fits with other research
Bao et al. (2017) zoomed in on self-esteem and memory. They found that kids who feel worse about themselves and recall fewer self-facts show more anxiety and depression. Carter et al. (2011) shows the same pattern holds across all autism levels.
Fullana et al. (2007) studied toddlers and saw that more autism traits predicted less secure attachment. Carter et al. (2011) adds that these early traits keep shaping adjustment later on.
Together, the papers paint one picture: personality and early social traits drive later problems in autism, no matter how severe the autism looks.
Why it matters
You can treat temperament as a shared risk factor. Focus on boosting sociability and easing internal distress in every child you serve, not just the severe cases. Simple mood check-ins and peer practice work for all.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
To test the spectrum hypothesis--postulating that clinical and non-clinical samples are primarily differentiated by mean-level differences--, this study evaluates differences in parent-rated temperament, personality and maladjustment among a low-symptom (N = 81), a high-symptom (N = 94) ASD-group, and a comparison group (N = 500). These classic spectrum hypothesis tests are extended by adding tests for similarity in variances, reliabilities and patterns of covariation between relevant variables. Children with ASD exhibit more extreme means, except for dominance. The low- and high-symptom ASD-groups are primarily differentiated by mean sociability and internal distress. Striking similarities in reliability and pattern of covariation of variables suggest that comparable processes link traits to maladaptation in low- and high-symptom children with ASD and in children with and without autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2011 · doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1043-6