25113
Positive, Negative, and Other Emotions in Young Autistic Children: The Importance of Context
Objectives: To assess larger groups of age-matched young autistic and typical children with MSPS, and to further document the context of their emotions.
Methods: 37 autistic (mean age=45.8 months, SD=10.5; MSEL=74.0, SD=27.7) and 39 typical (mean age=41.1 months, SD=14.1, p=0.124; MSEL=103.0, SD=24.8, p<0.001) children were assessed with MSPS. Four play periods (free-play 1, semi-free play, semi-structured play, free-play 2) with 40 objects of potential interest to autistic children were filmed by a trained cameraman. Two naïve typical raters coded positive, negative, neutral, and unknown emotions on Observer XT 11©. Duration, frequency, and proportion of children displaying each emotion were analysed for all play periods, and associated with object explorations and repetitive behaviors.
Results: For the full MSPS, there were no significant group differences in frequency, duration, and proportion of children displaying positive, negative, or neutral emotions (p’s>.09). Positive emotions were pervasive and negative emotions rare in both groups. However, emotions coded as unknown were observed in 43.2% of autistic vs 0% of typical children (p<.001). Autistic children thus displayed significantly greater frequency (mean=3.5, SD=9.0, p=.018) and duration (mean=14s, SD=37s, p=.019) of emotions coded as unknown, compared to their complete absence in typical children.
For individual play periods, there were no significant group differences for positive, negative, or neutral emotions (p’s>.12) except in semi-structured play, with greater duration of positive emotions in typical (mean=104s, SD=109s) vs autistic (mean=59s, SD=58s, p<.05) children. Unknown emotions were significantly more frequent in autistic children in semi-structured and free-play 2 periods (p’s<.05).
For emotions associated with objects explored by >75% of children, across both groups positive emotions were expressed 18.9-76.9% and negative emotions 0-5.1% of the time, with no significant group differences for any object (p’s>.06). Emotions coded as unknown, unique to autistics, were observed 2.7-13.5% of the time (p’s=.018-.301).
Finally, for emotions in autistic children associated with their most-observed repetitive behaviors, positive emotions were observed during arm movements, hand flapping, and close gaze at objects (16.2%, 24.3%, 16.2% of the time, respectively), as were unknown emotions (8.1%, 5.4%, 5.4%). Negative emotions were not observed during any of these behaviors.
Conclusions: In a novel context of potential interest to them, autistic children expressed many positive and few negative emotions, particularly when exploring objects freely. Characteristically autistic repetitive behaviors co-occurred with positive, not negative, emotions. We did not find evidence of emotional dysregulation in young autistic children, compared to age-matched typical children with significantly higher MSEL scores. Autistic children uniquely expressed a range of emotions coded as unknown, suggesting there is room to improve our understanding of their full emotional repertoire.
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