TY - JOUR
T1 - Empathizing, systemizing, empathizing-systemizing difference and their association with autistic traits in children with autism spectrum disorder, with and without intellectual disability
AU - Pan, Ning
AU - Auyeung, Bonnie
AU - Wang, Xin
AU - Lin, Li Zi
AU - Li, Hai Lin
AU - Zhan, Xiao Ling
AU - Jin, Cheng Kai
AU - Jing, Jin
AU - Li, Xiu Hong
N1 - Funding Information:
Key‐Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province, Grant/Award Number: 2019B030335001; National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Numbers: 81872639, 81673197, 82103794; Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 2021A1515011757; European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement, Grant/Award Number: 813546; Baily Thomas Charitable Fund, the Data Driven Innovation and the UK Economic and Social Research Council, Grant/Award Number: ES/N018877/1 Funding information
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Key‐Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (grant number 2019B030335001), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81872639, 81673197, 82103794) and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (grant number 2021A1515011757). Bonnie Auyeung was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement No. 813546, the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund, the Data Driven Innovation and the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ES/N018877/1) during the course of this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference can be linked to autistic traits in the general adult population and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but these profiles and associations remain unclear in children with ASD, with and without intellectual disability (ASD + ID; ASD-noID). We recruited three groups including 160 boys with ASD (73 ASD + ID; 87 ASD-noID) and 99 typically developing (TD) boys (6–12 years). We measured empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference using the parent-reported child Empathy and Systemizing Quotient (EQ-C/SQ-C). We measured autistic traits using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Among the three groups, children with ASD + ID and ASD-noID scored lower on the EQ-C and SQ-C than TD children (all p < 0.001). There was no difference in the EQ-C between children with ASD + ID and ASD-noID (16.59 ± 5.53 vs. 16.23 ± 5.85, p = 0.973), and the difference in the SQ-C attenuated to null when adjusting for intelligence between children with ASD-noID and TD children (18.89 ± 7.80 vs. 24.15 ± 6.73, p = 0.089). Children with ASD + ID scored higher on empathizing-systemizing difference than TD children but lower than children with ASD-noID (all p < 0.05). Negative associations between EQ-C and all autistic traits, null associations between SQ-C and all autistic traits, and positive associations between empathizing-systemizing difference and all autistic traits were found in all groups. We observed differences in empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference and the consistency of their associations with autistic traits among the three groups. Our findings provide implication that behavioral interventions of ASD should consider the balance of empathizing and systemizing. Lay Summary: We examined the profiles of empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference in children with autism spectrum disorder, with and without intellectual disability (ASD + ID; ASD-noID), and typically developing (TD) children aged 6–12 years. We observed differences in these profiles and the consistency of their associations with autistic traits among the three groups. Empathizing and empathizing-systemizing difference, rather than systemizing, were associated with autistic traits within the three groups. Our findings provide implication that behavioral interventions of ASD should consider these imbalance profiles.
AB - Empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference can be linked to autistic traits in the general adult population and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but these profiles and associations remain unclear in children with ASD, with and without intellectual disability (ASD + ID; ASD-noID). We recruited three groups including 160 boys with ASD (73 ASD + ID; 87 ASD-noID) and 99 typically developing (TD) boys (6–12 years). We measured empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference using the parent-reported child Empathy and Systemizing Quotient (EQ-C/SQ-C). We measured autistic traits using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Among the three groups, children with ASD + ID and ASD-noID scored lower on the EQ-C and SQ-C than TD children (all p < 0.001). There was no difference in the EQ-C between children with ASD + ID and ASD-noID (16.59 ± 5.53 vs. 16.23 ± 5.85, p = 0.973), and the difference in the SQ-C attenuated to null when adjusting for intelligence between children with ASD-noID and TD children (18.89 ± 7.80 vs. 24.15 ± 6.73, p = 0.089). Children with ASD + ID scored higher on empathizing-systemizing difference than TD children but lower than children with ASD-noID (all p < 0.05). Negative associations between EQ-C and all autistic traits, null associations between SQ-C and all autistic traits, and positive associations between empathizing-systemizing difference and all autistic traits were found in all groups. We observed differences in empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference and the consistency of their associations with autistic traits among the three groups. Our findings provide implication that behavioral interventions of ASD should consider the balance of empathizing and systemizing. Lay Summary: We examined the profiles of empathizing, systemizing, and empathizing-systemizing difference in children with autism spectrum disorder, with and without intellectual disability (ASD + ID; ASD-noID), and typically developing (TD) children aged 6–12 years. We observed differences in these profiles and the consistency of their associations with autistic traits among the three groups. Empathizing and empathizing-systemizing difference, rather than systemizing, were associated with autistic traits within the three groups. Our findings provide implication that behavioral interventions of ASD should consider these imbalance profiles.
KW - autism spectrum disorder
KW - empathy
KW - intellectual disability
KW - systemizing
U2 - 10.1002/aur.2766
DO - 10.1002/aur.2766
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132111916
SN - 1939-3792
VL - 15
SP - 1348
EP - 1357
JO - Autism Research
JF - Autism Research
IS - 7
ER -