Abstract
Emotion recognition skills and the ability to understand the mental states of others are crucial for normal social functioning. Conversely, delays and impairments in these processes can have a profound impact on capability to engage in, maintain, and effectively regulate social interactions. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the performance of 42 autistic children (Mage = 8.25 years, SD = 2.22), 45 unaffected siblings (Mage = 8.65 years, SD = 2.40), and 41 typically developing (TD) controls (Mage = 8.56 years, SD = 2.35) on the Affect Recognition (AR) and Theory of Mind (TOM) subtests of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment Battery. There were no significant differences between siblings and TD controls. Autistic children showed significantly poorer performance on AR when compared to TD controls and on TOM when compared to both TD controls and unaffected siblings. An additional comparison of ASD, unaffected sibling and TD control subsamples, matched on full-scale IQ, revealed no group differences for either AR or TOM. AR and TOM processes have received less research attention in siblings of autistic children and remain less well characterized. Therefore, despite limitations, findings reported here contribute to our growing understanding of AR and TOM abilities in siblings of autistic children and highlight important future research directions.
Highlights
Impairments in social functioning are a hallmark diagnostic feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
Post hoc comparisons indicated that for Affect Recognition (AR), autistic children had significantly lower scores when compared to typically developing (TD) controls [p = 0.042, 95% bootstrapped confidence intervals (95% bCI): -6.53 -0.09, Cohen’s d = 0.55]; the difference with unaffected siblings did not reach statistical significance
Given the significantly lower full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) in autistic children, a follow-up comparison was conducted in a subsample of autistic children, unaffected siblings, and TD controls matched on the FSIQ
Summary
Impairments in social functioning are a hallmark diagnostic feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) These impairments have a pervasive negative impact across all aspects of functioning and lead to negative long-term outcomes (Mundy et al, 2009; Leekam, 2016). Social Cognition in Unaffected Siblings evidence (Piven et al, 1997; Bailey et al, 1998; Bishop et al, 2006; Sucksmith et al, 2011; Ruzich et al, 2016) have demonstrated that, in addition to high rates of recurrence of the categorical ASD diagnosis, family members of autistic individuals exhibit subclinical levels of ASD related traits This presence of traits characteristic of ASD, but exhibited to a lesser degree, has been termed the Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP; Piven et al, 1997; Bolton et al, 1998). With regards to AR and TOM abilities in siblings, findings have been inconsistent, with studies suggesting both impairments (Dorris et al, 2004; Oerlemans et al, 2013, 2014) and intact performance (Ozonoff et al, 1993; Bölte and Poustka, 2003; Shaked et al, 2006; Holt et al, 2014)
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