Relationship of Temperament Differences with Diagnosis, Severity and Accompanying Psychiatric Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Abstract

Temperament differences were shown in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, associations of temperament with ASD severity and accompanying psychiatric symptoms have yet to be studied. We evaluated 58 ASD-diagnosed children's temperaments through disorder severity and psychiatric symptoms and compared them with 58 typically developed children. We utilized the Children's Behavior Questionnaire-Short Form, The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) was used to evaluate psychiatric symptoms and ASD severity levels of children. Negative affect, effortful control, and perceptual sensitivity were found lower in ASD-diagnosed children and decreased with ASD severity. Effortful control was also found negatively correlated with scores of behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and total difficulties. Besides, anger/frustration was found predictive for conduct and peer problems, and total difficulty scores. Further studies are needed to verify and expand these pioneer findings.