Are children with Autism different from non-Autistic children in understanding emotions?
Category: Research Poster
Author(s): Ryleigh O'Donnell, Emily Dann, Sarah Staples, Killian Garnand
Presenter(s): Ryleigh O'Donnell, Emily Dann, Sarah Staples, Killian Garnand
Mentors(s): Susan Hepburn
Alexithymia describes difficulties identifying and describing emotions. Research suggests alexithymia could be a transdiagnostic risk factor for those with emotion regulation challenges, particularly for individuals with autism, and has relied on parent report measures. Therefore, we wanted to discover what could be learned by interviewing youth directly. Aims: (1) Evaluate the inter-observer reliability using a coding system to evaluate youths’ emotional communication. (2) Examine whether verbally fluent children with autism show more impaired emotion communication than their peers without autism, matched by chronological age and verbal IQ. Methods: This study uses existing data from a complex longitudinal study of autism. 115 youth (ages 5-12) completed a videotaped interview about their experiences with four basic emotions (happy, scared, angry and sad). Our team developed a coding scheme to capture the quality of the youths’ emotional communication, focusing identifying triggers and internal physiological sensations they associate with those emotions. Results: (1) 45 samples were coded by 2 observers independently. Overall mean percent agreement exceeded 85%, suggesting strong reliability. (2) There was a significant difference in emotion communication quality based on diagnostic group, F(2, 112) = 4.89, p<.009; Wilk’s Lambda = .92; partial eta squared = .081. Diagnostic group had a significant effect on the quality of report of physiological sensations associated with emotions, F(1, 112) = 8.58, p<.004; partial eta squared = .071. There were no significant group differences in the quality of descriptions of external triggers associated with emotions, F(1, 112) = 3.31, p<.072; partial eta squared = .021.