پرخاشگری واکنشی/کنشی و شناخت عاطفی/احساس همدردی در کودکان مبتلا به ASD

The main aim of this study was to examine the extent to which affective and cognitive empathy were associated with reactive and proactive aggression, and whether these associations differed between children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children. The study included 133 children (67 ASD, 66 TD, Mage = 139 months), who filled out self-report questionnaires. The main findings showed that the association between reactive aggression and affective empathy was negative in TD children, but positive in children with ASD. The outcomes support the idea that a combination of poor emotion regulation and impaired understanding of others’ emotions is associated with aggressive behavior in children with ASD.

Aggressive behaviors have been frequently observed in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Bronsard et al., 2010, Farmer and Aman, 2011 and Kanne and Mazurek, 2011), which are also related to more frequent mental health referrals (Mash & Barkley, 2003). Clinicians sometimes argue that aggressive behaviors in children with ASD should not be interpreted the same way as in typically developing (TD) children (Matson & Nebel-Schwalm, 2007). In fact, despite the high prevalence of aggressive behaviors in young and/or intellectual disabled children with ASD, little research has been done to examine aggressive behavior in high-functioning young adolescents with ASD. In TD children, a lack of empathy is associated with higher levels of aggression (e.g., Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006). Although children with ASD are known for their atypical empathic development (Jones, Happe, Gilbert, Burnett, & Viding, 2010), it has never been studied in relation to their aggressive behavior. Therefore, in this study, the main aim was to examine the relationship between empathy (affective and cognitive) and aggression in children and young adolescents with ASD, as compared to their TD peers.