Subgroups of Temperament Associated with Social-Emotional Difficulties in Infants with Early Signs of Autism.
Babies with early autism signs fall into three personality types, and two of them need extra emotional support.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chetcuti et al. (2020) watched 12-month-old infants who already showed early signs of autism.
They used parent questionnaires to sort the babies into temperament groups.
The goal was to see if different baby personalities predicted later social-emotional trouble.
What they found
Three clear baby personality types showed up.
The inhibited/low-positive group and the active/negative-reactive group had more internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
The well-regulated group looked calmer and happier.
How this fits with other research
Chetcuti et al. (2023) followed the same babies until age two. The three temperament labels stuck, proving they stay stable.
Eggleston et al. (2018) found a similar pattern in adults: autism traits link to lower well-being through personality, not autism itself.
Zhu et al. (2022) refined the Autism-Spectrum Quotient for adults, paralleling the baby work: both teams slice autism traits into finer, more useful buckets.
Why it matters
You can spot the two higher-risk baby personalities during your early autism screening. Add a short temperament checklist to your 12-month visit. Flag the shy, low-smile babies and the fussy, hard-soothe ones. Start early play routines that boost positive emotion and calm reactivity. This small step may prevent later anxiety and behavior problems.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Links between temperament and social-emotional difficulties are well-established in normative child development but remain poorly characterized in autism. We sought to characterize distinct temperament subgroups and their associations with concurrent internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a sample of 103 infants (Mage = 12.39 months, SD = 1.97; 68% male) showing early signs of autism. Latent profile analysis was used to identify subgroups of infants with distinct temperament trait configurations on the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. Derived subgroups were then compared in terms of internalizing and externalizing symptoms on the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. Three distinct temperament subgroups were identified: (a) inhibited/low positive (n = 22), characterized by low Smiling and Laughter, low High-Intensity Pleasure, low Vocal Reactivity, and low Approach; (b) active/negative reactive (n = 23), characterized by high Activity Level, high Distress to Limitations, high Sadness, high Fear, and low Falling Reactivity; and (c) well-regulated (n = 51), characterized by high Cuddliness, high Soothability, and high Low-Intensity Pleasure. There were no differences in infant sex ratio, mean age or developmental/cognitive ability. Inhibited/low-positive infants had significantly more behavioral autism signs than active/negative reactive and well-regulated infants, who did not differ. Inhibited/low-positive and active/negative reactive infants had higher internalizing symptoms, relative to well-regulated infants, and active/negative reactive infants also had higher externalizing symptoms. These findings align closely with those garnered in the context of normative child development, and point to child temperament as a putative target for internalizing and externalizing interventions. LAY SUMMARY: This study explored whether infants with early signs of autism could be grouped according to temperament characteristics (i.e., emotional, behavioral, and attentional traits). Three subgroups were identified that differed with respect to emotional and behavioral difficulties. Specifically, "inhibited/low-positive" infants had high emotional difficulties, "active/negative reactive" infants had high emotional and behavioral difficulties, while "well-regulated" infants had the lowest difficulties.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2381