See the self through others’ eyes: The development of moral emotions in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Despite the important social functions of moral emotions, they are understudied in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population. This three-wave longitudinal study is among the first to examine the development of moral emotions and their associations with theory of mind in 3- to 7-year-old children with ASD, using observational tasks. One hundred and forty-two children (52 with ASD) were followed over a period of 2 years. We found that while the expressions of shame and guilt remained stable in non-ASD children, they decreased with age in children with ASD. No group differences were found in the levels or the developmental trajectories of pride. Besides, better false-belief understanding was uniquely related to the expressions of pride in children with ASD. Our findings highlight the importance of enhancing understanding of moral emotion development and related factors in children with ASD.

Moral emotions in early childhood: Validation of the Chinese moral emotion questionnaire

“…As for the relation between the levels of moral emotions and age within this preschool period: consistent to the cross-sectional studies (e.g., Cole et al, 2006;Konchanska et al, 1995) and the longitudinal studies focusing on Western preschoolers (e.g., Li et al, 2021), our results revealed no age difference in our Chinese sample either, indicating that the levels of pride, guilt and shame remained relatively static in the preschool stage. The comparisons of scores between groups were based on the premise that measurement invariance were achieved for (the majority of) the items used.…”

“…Therefore, research of moral emotions in preschoolers mostly used observational tasks, where "rigged" situations were created to provoke pride, shame, and/or guilt in children. Typically developing children aged 2 to 6 years already showed remorse and regret when they failed a task or damaged the property of others, and pride when making an achievement (e.g., Alessandri & Lewis, 1996;Barrett et al, 1993;Belsky et al, 1997;Ketelaar et al, 2015;Lewis & Ramsay, 2002;Li et al, 2021;Ross, 2017). In addition to measuring moral emotions at the global level by the emotional valence (e.g., Ketelaar et al, 2015;Li et al, 2021), some behavioural studies examined discrete moral emotions within the same valence, e.g., distinguishing between shame and guilt by observing whether children showed avoidance or reparative behaviours (Barrett et al, 1993;Ross, 2017).…”

“…Typically developing children aged 2 to 6 years already showed remorse and regret when they failed a task or damaged the property of others, and pride when making an achievement (e.g., Alessandri & Lewis, 1996;Barrett et al, 1993;Belsky et al, 1997;Ketelaar et al, 2015;Lewis & Ramsay, 2002;Li et al, 2021;Ross, 2017). In addition to measuring moral emotions at the global level by the emotional valence (e.g., Ketelaar et al, 2015;Li et al, 2021), some behavioural studies examined discrete moral emotions within the same valence, e.g., distinguishing between shame and guilt by observing whether children showed avoidance or reparative behaviours (Barrett et al, 1993;Ross, 2017). While these behavioural studies provided valuable information on preschoolers' shame/guilt-related responses to specific situations, parent questionnaires can further inform us about children's dispositional tendencies to experiencing moral emotions across contexts.…”

“…Moral emotions are a spectrum of emotions that arise when a person evaluates his/her own attributes or behaviours in light of the dominant social norms and moral values (Tangney et al., 2007; Tracy & Robins, 2004). Pride arises when a person has a positive evaluation on his/her personal attributes or behaviours (Li et al., 2021). For example, if the prevailing social norm views “helping others” as a good deed, one may feel proud of him/herself (“I am a good person”), or of his/her prosocial behaviours (“I did a good thing”) after performing a helping behaviour.…”

“…“I did something bad to others”; but when one attributes the negative event to the global self, e.g. “I am a terrible person in others’ eyes”, shame becomes the dominant emotion (Li et al., 2021; Tracy & Robins, 2004). Shame is often perceived as more maladaptive than guilt, as it is accompanied by a devaluation of one's inherent personalities.…”