BACKGROUND: A deficit in empathy is discussed to underlie difficulties in social interaction of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and conduct disorder (CD). To date, no study has compared children with ASD and different subtypes of CD to describe disorder-specific empathy profiles in clinical samples. Furthermore, little is known about age influences on the development of empathic skills. The aim of the current study was to compare cognitive and emotional empathy in different age groups of children with ASD, CD with elevated or low callous-unemotional-traits (CU+ vs. CU-) and a matched control group (CG). METHODS: Fifty-five boys with ASD, 36 boys with CD-CU+, 34 boys with CD-CU- and 67 controls were included. The study implemented three tasks on emotion recognition, perspective taking and emotional affection induced by another person's situation. Multivariate Analysis of variance with the factors group and age (median split) including their interaction term was performed to describe disorder-specific profiles. RESULTS: Empathy profiles showed differential impairment in children with ASD and CD-CU+. Boys with ASD were impaired in cognitive empathy while participants with CD-CU+ were impaired in emotional empathy. Children with CD-CU- did not differ from the CG. However, boys with CD-CU- were less emotionally reactive in response to film stimuli than children with ASD. Furthermore, we found strong age effects indicating an increase in cognitive and affective empathic skills beyond early infancy in all groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, distinct empathic profiles in children with ASD and CD-CU+ were found. Furthermore, the work demonstrates improvement of empathic skills throughout childhood and adolescence, which is comparable for individuals with psychiatric disorders and control children. These results yield implications for further research as well as for therapeutic interventions.
BACKGROUND: A deficit in empathy is discussed to underlie difficulties in social interaction of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and conduct disorder (CD). To date, no study has compared children with ASD and different subtypes of CD to describe disorder-specific empathy profiles in clinical samples. Furthermore, little is known about age influences on the development of empathic skills. The aim of the current study was to compare cognitive and emotional empathy in different age groups of children with ASD, CD with elevated or low callous-unemotional-traits (CU+ vs. CU-) and a matched control group (CG). METHODS: Fifty-five boys with ASD, 36 boys with CD-CU+, 34 boys with CD-CU- and 67 controls were included. The study implemented three tasks on emotion recognition, perspective taking and emotional affection induced by another person's situation. Multivariate Analysis of variance with the factors group and age (median split) including their interaction term was performed to describe disorder-specific profiles. RESULTS: Empathy profiles showed differential impairment in children with ASD and CD-CU+. Boys with ASD were impaired in cognitive empathy while participants with CD-CU+ were impaired in emotional empathy. Children with CD-CU- did not differ from the CG. However, boys with CD-CU- were less emotionally reactive in response to film stimuli than children with ASD. Furthermore, we found strong age effects indicating an increase in cognitive and affective empathic skills beyond early infancy in all groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, distinct empathic profiles in children with ASD and CD-CU+ were found. Furthermore, the work demonstrates improvement of empathic skills throughout childhood and adolescence, which is comparable for individuals with psychiatric disorders and control children. These results yield implications for further research as well as for therapeutic interventions.
Authors: Eduard T Klapwijk; Gert-Jan Lelieveld; Moji Aghajani; Albert E Boon; Nic J A van der Wee; Arne Popma; Robert R J M Vermeiren; Olivier F Colins Journal: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci Date: 2016-02-29 Impact factor: 3.436
Authors: Virginia Carter Leno; Adam Naples; Anthony Cox; Helena Rutherford; James C McPartland Journal: Soc Neurosci Date: 2015-11-16 Impact factor: 2.083
Authors: Wouter van den Bos; Pauline Vahl; Berna Güroğlu; Félice van Nunspeet; Olivier Colins; Monica Markus; Serge A R B Rombouts; Nic van der Wee; Robert Vermeiren; Eveline A Crone Journal: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci Date: 2014-02-03 Impact factor: 3.436
Authors: Christine M Freitag; Kerstin Konrad; Christina Stadler; Stephane A De Brito; Arne Popma; Sabine C Herpertz; Beate Herpertz-Dahlmann; Inga Neumann; Meinhard Kieser; Andreas G Chiocchetti; Christina Schwenck; Graeme Fairchild Journal: Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry Date: 2018-06-09 Impact factor: 4.785
Authors: Danielle Bons; Egon van den Broek; Floor Scheepers; Pierre Herpers; Nanda Rommelse; Jan K Buitelaar; Jan K Buitelaaar Journal: J Abnorm Child Psychol Date: 2013-04