Relationship between repetitive behaviour and fear across normative development, autism spectrum disorder, and down syndrome.
Fear and repetitive behaviors rise together in autism and, more weakly, in Down syndrome and young typical kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Uljarević et al. (2017) asked parents to rate fear and repetitive behaviors in the kids. The sample split three ways: autism, Down syndrome, and typically developing peers.
They used the same parent checklists for all groups so scores could be compared head-to-head.
What they found
Children with autism scored highest on repetitive behaviors. Fear and repetition moved up together in the autism group and, to a lesser degree, in Down syndrome and younger typical kids.
The link vanished in older typical children. In short, more fear equaled more rocking, lining up, or hand flaps, but only in some groups.
How this fits with other research
Glenn et al. (2007) first showed that routines in Down syndrome shift from helpful to harmful as mental age passes five years. Mirko adds fear as a possible driver of that shift.
Leung et al. (2014) found emotion dysregulation tightly tied to repetitive behaviors in autism. Mirko narrows the lens, showing fear alone tracks the same pattern.
Iversen et al. (2021) pooled data from the kids and linked poor executive function to higher repetitive behaviors. Mirko’s fear link runs parallel, hinting that both emotional and cognitive routes feed the same behavior top.
Why it matters
If fear fuels repetitive behavior, calming skills may reduce the behavior itself. Screen for anxiety during intake, especially with autism or Down syndrome. Teach deep breathing, gradual exposure, or other fear-busters before, or alongside, traditional behavior plans. Track both fear and repetition to see if one drops with the other.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present study had two aims: first to compare levels of restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRB) across two groups of typically developing (TD) children, and two disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome (DS), and second to explore the relationship between fear and repetitive behaviours in these four groups. Parents of 41 offspring with ASD (Mage = 123.39 months, SDage = 27.67), 38 offspring with DS (Mage = 125.37 months, SDage = 45.71), 45 typically developing children matched to the mental age (MA) of the DS group (TD MA; Mage = 51.13 months, SDage = 22.1), and 42 chronological age (TD CA; Mage = 117.93 months, SDage = 22.91) matched TD children, completed measures of RRB and fear. ANOVAs revealed differences across the four groups on the RRB subscale scores: "Just Right" F(3,162) = 16.62, P < 0.001; Rigid Routines F(3,162) = 52.76, P < 0.001; Sensory behaviours F(3,162) = 23.26, P < 0.001. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that children with ASD had the highest RRB levels followed by DS, TD MA, and TD CA children. In children with ASD, higher levels of fear were related to higher RRB levels. Similar, albeit less strong, patterns of associations was found among DS and TD MA children but not in older TD CA children. This study provided evidence of a fear-RRB association in children with ASD, DS, and two groups of TD children. Autism Res 2017, 10: 502-507. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2017 · doi:10.1002/aur.1674