Maladaptive Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Role of Emotion Experience and Emotion Regulation

Samson, Andrea Christiane; Hardan, Antonio Y.; Lee, Ihno A.; Phillips, Jennifer M.; Gross, James J.

doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2388-7

Cited by 137 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…With regard to the self-report measures, it was examined whether individuals scoring high on autistic traits show a deviant ER pattern. In line with studies on individuals from the clinical population (Samson et al 2012, 2014a, b, 2015a, b), people scoring high on autistic traits reported using fewer adaptive and more maladaptive ER strategies than individuals scoring low on autistic traits. Our results thus demonstrate that similar associations between autistic traits and ER strategies can be found in both a clinical and a non-clinical sample, which is consistent with the broad autism spectrum approach.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Mazefsky et al (2014) showed that the more frequent use of maladaptive ER strategies such as rumination by adolescents with ASD was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Focussing on both internalising and externalising psychopathologies in children and adolescents with ASD, stronger reliance on maladaptive (suppression) and weaker reliance on adaptive (reappraisal) ER strategies has shown to be related to higher levels of negative emotion (Samson et al 2015a). These increased levels of negative emotion in turn resulted in maladjusted behaviour, such as impulsivity, truancy, and temper tantrums.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Self-Report and Brain Indicators of Impaired Emotion Regulation in the Broad Autism Spectrum

Groot

Strien

2017

J Autism Dev Disord

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Although not used as a diagnostic criterion, impaired emotion regulation is frequently observed in autism. The present study examined self-reported use of emotion regulation strategies in individuals scoring low or high on autistic traits. In addition, the late positive potential, which is sensitive to emotional arousal, was used to examine the effect of one strategy, reappraisal. Reporting more autistic traits was related to using more maladaptive and fewer adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Across both groups, no attenuation of the late positive potential during downregulation of unpleasant pictures was found, possibly because of the used valence-changing reappraisal operationalisation. Hence, although self-report indicated impaired emotion regulation in individuals high on autistic traits, electrophysiological findings could not confirm this.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Report and Brain Indicators of Impaired Emotion Regulation in the Broad Autism Spectrum

Groot

Strien

2017

J Autism Dev Disord

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“…Recent studies have corroborated the critical role of emotion dysregulation in affective functioning (Mazefsky et al, 2013;Samson et al, 2012Samson et al, , 2015b. Individuals with ASD, compared to TD participants, seem to have a dysfunctional pattern of emotion regulation, characterized by less frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies (goal-directed behaviors, seeking social support, cognitive reappraisal; Jahromi et al, 2012;Rieffe et al, 2011;Samson et al, 2012) and more frequent use of maladaptive strategies (avoidance, venting, expressive suppression; Jahromi et al, 2012;Konstantareas and Stewart, 2006;Samson et al, 2012Samson et al, , 2015aMazefsky et al, 2014).…”

Section: Socio-affective Deficits In Autism Spectrum Disordermentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Individuals with ASD, compared to TD participants, seem to have a dysfunctional pattern of emotion regulation, characterized by less frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies (goal-directed behaviors, seeking social support, cognitive reappraisal; Jahromi et al, 2012;Rieffe et al, 2011;Samson et al, 2012) and more frequent use of maladaptive strategies (avoidance, venting, expressive suppression; Jahromi et al, 2012;Konstantareas and Stewart, 2006;Samson et al, 2012Samson et al, , 2015aMazefsky et al, 2014). Emotion dysregulation in ASD has been linked to increased psychopathology (Mazefsky et al, 2014), lower levels of prosocial peer engagement (Jahromi et al, 2013), and higher levels of maladaptive behavior (Samson et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Socio-affective Deficits In Autism Spectrum Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

White matter structure in the uncinate fasciculus: Implications for socio-affective deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Samson

Dougherty

Lee

et al. 2016

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

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a b s t r a c tIndividuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have social and communication deficits and difficulties regulating emotions. The brain bases of these socio-affective deficits are not yet clear, but one candidate is structural connectivity in the left uncinate fasciculus, which connects limbic temporal and frontal areas thought to be involved in socio-affective processing. In this study, we assessed white matter structure in the left and right uncinate fasciculus in 18 high-functioning individuals with ASD and 18 group-matched typically developing (TD) controls using Diffusion Tensor Imaging. To test specificity of the associations, we also examined the association between both uncinate fasciculi and restricted and repetitive behaviors. Compared to TD individuals, individuals with ASD had significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left and right uncinate. Group status significantly moderated the association between left uncinate and socio-affective deficits, indicating that within the ASD group, FA was associated with socio-affective deficits: Individuals with ASD with lower FA in the left uncinate had significantly more social and emotion regulation deficits. There was no association with restricted and repetitive behaviors. This study provides evidence that the left uncinate may play a critical role in socio-affective skills in individuals with ASD.

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“…But this study used only one moral dilemma per condition and thus generalizability of these results remains to be assessed. This finding is also surprising in the light of evidence for prevalent negative hyperarousal in autistic individuals [60][61][62] , which would make it less likely that they would make utilitarian moral judgments 45,49 . Indeed, another unpublished study did not find any evidence for such increased utilitarian proclivity in ASD (Dr. Geoffrey Bird, personal correspondence).…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

Divergent roles of autistic and alexithymic traits in utilitarian moral judgments in adults with autism

Patil¹,

Melsbach²,

Hennig-Fast³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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This study investigated hypothetical moral choices in adults with high-functioning autism and the role of empathy and alexithymia in such choices. We used a highly emotionally salient moral dilemma task to investigate autistics' hypothetical moral evaluations about personally carrying out harmful utilitarian behaviours aimed at maximizing welfare. Results showed that they exhibited a normal pattern of moral judgments despite the deficits in social cognition and emotional processing. Further analyses revealed that this was due to mutually conflicting biases associated with autistic and alexithymic traits after accounting for shared variance: (a) autistic traits were associated with reduced utilitarian bias due to elevated personal distress of demanding social situations, while (b) alexithymic traits were associated with increased utilitarian bias on account of reduced empathic concern for the victim. Additionally, autistics relied on their non-verbal reasoning skills to rigidly abide by harm-norms. Thus, utilitarian moral judgments in autism were spared due to opposite influences of autistic and alexithymic traits and compensatory intellectual strategies. These findings demonstrate the importance of empathy and alexithymia in autistic moral cognition and have methodological implications for studying moral judgments in several other clinical populations.

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Maladaptive Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Role of Emotion Experience and Emotion Regulation

Cited by 137 publications

References 34 publications

Self-Report and Brain Indicators of Impaired Emotion Regulation in the Broad Autism Spectrum

Self-Report and Brain Indicators of Impaired Emotion Regulation in the Broad Autism Spectrum

White matter structure in the uncinate fasciculus: Implications for socio-affective deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Divergent roles of autistic and alexithymic traits in utilitarian moral judgments in adults with autism

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