There are indications that children with autism have difficulties with emotion regulation. Therefore, the emotion regulation strategies of children with autism in comparison with typically...Show moreThere are indications that children with autism have difficulties with emotion regulation. Therefore, the emotion regulation strategies of children with autism in comparison with typically developing children were the target of this study. Because the development of emotion regulation skills is highly dependent on the influence of the mother, the empathy of the mother was also examined. The differences in emotion regulation strategies between children with autism and a non-clinical control group and the relationship with the empathy of the mother were tested in a laboratory session at Centre for Autism. The sample consisted of 53 mothers with their children, divided into a clinical group of children with autism (N = 19) and a non-clinical control group (N = 34). The age of the children varied between 41 and 81 months, with a mean of 56.91 months (SD = 11.27). To measure the emotion regulation strategies, the children were exposed to an anxiety-provoking situation: the Mechanical Toy Paradigm. The empathy of the mother was determined by the self-assessment questionnaire Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Children with autism showed significantly more avoidance and non-constructive emotion regulation strategies than children in the control group. No difference was found in the use of constructive emotion regulation strategies between children with autism and the control group. Mothers from the clinical group and control group did not differ in the degree of empathy. There was no significant correlation between empathy of the mother and emotion regulation strategies of the child. Conclusion: children with autism have difficulties with regulating their emotions and this was not related to empathy of the mother. There is a need for future research on the behave of improving emotion regulation strategies for children with autism. Interventions could include co-emotion regulation of the mother, because children with autism also seem to view their mother as a source of assistance.Show less
Background: Previous research showed inconsistent results on the effect of parenting on the mastery motivation of children. Little research has been done on the influence of child’s autism...Show moreBackground: Previous research showed inconsistent results on the effect of parenting on the mastery motivation of children. Little research has been done on the influence of child’s autism characteristics to the mastery motivation of children. Aim: The current study investigated whether positive parenting, negative parenting and autism characteristics were related to the instrumental and expressive mastery motivation. Method: In this study 48 mothers and children participated. The children (6 girls), were around 4 years of age (SD = 0.95). The instrumental and expressive mastery motivation were measured by the Dimensions Mastery Questionnaire. Parenting was measured by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire and autism characteristics by the Social Responsiveness Scale for children. Results: Autism characteristics of the child were negatively related to instrumental mastery motivation. Specifically, less social motivation predicted less instrumental mastery motivation of children. Positive parenting and negative parenting were not related to instrumental mastery motivation. In addition, there were no relationships found between positive parenting, negative parenting, child’s autism characteristics and expressive mastery motivation of the child. Discussion: These results contribute to the growing knowledge of the relationship between parenting, autism characteristics and mastery motivation. Further research should focus on the relationship between autism characteristics and social, motor, cognitive and expressive mastery motivation measured physiological and by observation. The development of interventions to increase social motivation in children with autism characteristics is also key because it can benefit the instrumental mastery motivation.Show less
Previous research has shown that children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties with emotion regulation. However, not much is known about the strategies that these children apply...Show morePrevious research has shown that children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties with emotion regulation. However, not much is known about the strategies that these children apply when they regulate their emotions. Furthermore, parental emotion awareness may play an important role in emotion regulation strategies, but to our knowledge, this has not yet been studied. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare emotion regulation strategies between children with ASD and healthy controls while they experienced negative emotions. Furthermore, we examined whether maternal emotion awareness differed between mothers of children with ASD and mothers of healthy controls, and explored whether maternal emotion awareness was related to children’s emotion regulation strategies. Seventeen children with ASD and 25 typically developing children between the ages of 3 and 7 years were tested. Children performed a task that elicited frustration while their emotion regulation strategies were videotaped and later coded. The Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) was used to assess maternal emotion awareness. Results showed that compared to healthy controls, children with ASD tended to use more alternate strategies and less goal-directed action while completing the task. Furthermore, children with ASD more often applied emotion regulation strategies in which they engaged in distraction, self-speech, vocal venting, and self-soothing. No differences were found in the use of social support seeking strategies. With respect to maternal emotion awareness, the results showed that mothers of children with ASD were less aware of their emotions than mothers of control children. In addition, when looking at the total sample, a relation was found between lower levels of maternal emotion awareness and the use of more distraction as an emotion regulation strategy. Implications for interventions and future research are discussed.Show less
Qualitative impairments in social interactions is one of the problems children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) faced with. In a normal development there is a connection between the points the...Show moreQualitative impairments in social interactions is one of the problems children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) faced with. In a normal development there is a connection between the points the eyes are fixated on and the child’s social behavior. Previous research has found that children with ASD have atypical eye contact. The thesis of this present study was: “Can fixation on different emotions be related to social dysfunctioning and connected to autistic characteristics of young children and can the Theory of Mind (ToM) be used to explain this? The sample consisted of 18 children between 3,5 and 6 years old,with varying degrees of autistic behavior The research was based on a number of ASD-characteristics, the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) was used for this. The social cognition was measured by the ToM tasks from the NEPSY. The visual fixation patterns during watching videos of different emotions by these children were registered by the Tobii application. The results of the study show children with more autistic characteristics scored significantly different on fixation on objects, fixation on eyes (when they have a low score on Social Awareness) and Joint Attention (by a low score on Social Communication), but they did not show less attention to fixation on social areas (total fixation duration on faces, eyes, mouth and Joint Attention). So the fixation on different emotions can in specifics ways be connect to social dysfunctioning. No association was found between the fixation and the ToM. It is strongly recommended tot replicated this research, comparing a far larger clinical group of children with ASD to a control group. In this additional research more theories should be used to explain results and more. The additional research may well fully explain ASD in future, as a basis for developing suitable treatment, so children with ASD can develop optimally.Show less
This study attempted to investigate the influence of frustration tolerance on the coping strategies of boys with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). The participants were recruited in regular and...Show moreThis study attempted to investigate the influence of frustration tolerance on the coping strategies of boys with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). The participants were recruited in regular and special primary schools in the Netherlands. Forty-one children with DBD were compared with a control group of thirty-eight children. The frustration tolerance is measured by using the 'Amsterdamse Neuropsychologische Taken; Delay Frustration' (ANT-DF). The coping strategy is measured by using questionnaires. To determine the emotion regulation, the 'Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire' (CERQ) is used. The coping strategies are analyzed by using the 'Behavioral Anger Response Questionnaire' (BARQ). Results show that boys with DBD do not differ in frustration tolerance compare to the control group. The effect of negative feedback results in more frustration for both groups. There is a difference between the DBD and control group in using the strategies 'avoidance' and 'diffusion'. Boys with DBD use less often these strategies compared with the control group. In addition, they do not avoid the stress situation but seek more often confrontation. Also, they focus on their anger. The DBD group is split into boys with a low frustration tolerance and boys with a high frustration tolerance because there was no difference between the DBD group and the control group. Of all strategies, DBD boys with a low frustration tolerance only use less often an avoidance coping strategy compared with the control group. Based on this study, it can be concluded that boys with DBD use other coping strategies compared with the control group. Specially boys with a low frustration tolerance, avoid stress situations less often and seek confrontation.Show less
The prevalence of people with a disorder in the autism spectrum (ASD) is estimated on 60 to 100 on 10.000 people. A deficit in executive functions is a possible explanation of the behavior shown in...Show moreThe prevalence of people with a disorder in the autism spectrum (ASD) is estimated on 60 to 100 on 10.000 people. A deficit in executive functions is a possible explanation of the behavior shown in ASD. Mothers of children with ASD experience stress in the daily intercourse with their child. The deficit in executive functions might be a predictor for this maternal stress, because the effort-reward proportion is out of balance. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a relation between executive functions of children and maternal stress and which of the executive functions contributes the most to maternal stress. This study included 29 mothers with their child (Mage= 4,47, SDage= 1.10). The participants were recruited at schools, libary’s, social assistance organisations and throughsocial networks. The NOSI was used to mearsure maternal stress, the SRS was used to measure signs of autism, the BRIEF-p was used to measure executive functions of the child. Significant correlations were found between all EF and maternal stress: inhibition r=.75 (p<.01), cognitive flexibility r=.72 (p<.01), working memory r=.73 (p<.01), planning and organizing r=.78, (p<.01). The correlations between signs of autism and maternal stress was r=.86 (p<.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that Autism symptoms, β=.62, t(23)=4.59, p<.01, and planning and organization, β=.34, t(23)=2.49, p=.02, contributed to maternal stress and explained 80% of the stress. Signs of autism contributed the most. Results and suggestions for future research are discussed.Show less
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether group differences in parenting practices and child empathy exist in a sample of boys with and without disruptive behavior disorders (DBD)....Show moreThe purpose of this study was to investigate whether group differences in parenting practices and child empathy exist in a sample of boys with and without disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). Further in the whole sample, whether parenting practices are associated with child empathy and child aggression, and if child empathy can explain the relationship between parenting practices and child aggression. The sample consisted of 132 boys between 7 and 13 years old (M = 10.25, SD = 1.32), of which 68 had and 64 did not have DBD. Child empathy was measured via a self-report questionnaire. Parenting practices and child aggression were measured through a parent survey. Comparative analyses showed that boys with DBD have lower empathy levels and that their parents use more harsh and neglectful parenting practices compared to the control group. Multiple regression analyses showed that more inconsistent, negative discipline and less involvement is predictive of more child aggression. Also, more inconsistent discipline is predictive of less child empathy. However, the association between parent practices and child empathy is negligable in comparison to the association between parent practices and child agression. It was concluded that empathy levels of boys are not influenced by parental practices, but is probably due to other environmental factors and in interaction with certain child characteristics.Show less
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by limitations of social communication, limitations of social interaction and rigid patterns of activities and interests. Various studies have...Show moreAutism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by limitations of social communication, limitations of social interaction and rigid patterns of activities and interests. Various studies have shown that children with ASD have a lower extrinsic motivation. They are less motivated to take action when someone is requesting to perform a task. Due to the lower extrinsic motivation, children with ASD are more dependent on the intrinsic motivation to accomplish a task successfully. The main question of this study: does a relationship between intrinsic motivation and the degree of ASD characteristics exist? The study was conducted on a sample of 32 children, six of them are diagnosed with ASD. Correlation analysis showed a significant relation between intrinsic motivation and the degree of ASD characteristics. In addition a significant relation between affective intrinsic motivation and degree of ASD characteristics were found. There was no significant relation found between instrumental intrinsic motivation and degree of ASD characteristics. The results of the present study are consistent with previous studies which suggested an association between intrinsic motivation and ASD characteristics. Further research about the development of intrinsic motivation for children with ASD is necessary, so that interventions can be aligned.Show less
An Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication. Lacks of Theory of Mind, empathy and...Show moreAn Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication. Lacks of Theory of Mind, empathy and emotion recognition have been invoked as an explanatory mechanism for the impairments in the social cognition in an ASD. There is a need for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms for a better diagnosis and treatment of women with an ASD, because they are good in hiding the characteristics of an ASD. The current study compares different aspects of social cognition between women with a high functioning ASD and typical developed (TD) women through a comparison between women with and without an ASD. This comparison is based on their performance of social cognition tasks and through a comparison between women with an ASD mutually based on their reflectivity. A total of 31 women with an ASD and 30 TD women participated in this study. The prosody task of the ANT was used for recognition of basic emotions. For the visual emotion recognition the Facial Expression Recognition task was used. The informant list of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used to get the various aspects of empathy in daily life. The Dewey Social Story test was used for an impression of perspective taking and understanding of usual and unusual social situations. Results show that women with an ASD have more difficulty with perspective taking and in understanding of other people’s mental states. Although women with an ASD perform similar to TD women in recognizing the basic emotions, women with an ASD perform worse when these emotions are showed with low intensity. Women with an ASD are also slower in recognizing all basic emotions. The results of the comparison within the ASD-group based on their reflectivity shows that women with a good reflectivity are better in recognizing basic emotions when emotions are showed with high intensity. Furthermore, there are no noticeable differences in the comparison between women with good and poor reflectivity within the ASD-group. The two components, in which women with an ASD perform worse compared to women without ASD, can possibly play an important role in the social interactions, which are often based on high speed unconscious activities. More research is needed for a better understanding of the relationship between the Theory of Mind and the reflectivity and of the relationship between the different explanatory models of the impairments in social interaction and communication.Show less
