Predicting Empathy: The Interaction Between Indices of Reactivity and Regulation in Autism and Typical Development

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are known to display quantitative differences in their processing of sensory stimuli, most often studied at the level of negative sensory reactivity, which are hypothesized to play a role in atypical social behaviors. One often-neglected area of sensory processing, however, is in the regulation of these negative emotions, and how these two components (reactivity and regulation) might interact to affect social behavior.

 Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between one expression of sensory reactivity, sensory over-reactivity (SOR), and a temperamental measure of self-regulation, effortful control (EC), with a measure of parent-reported empathy. How this relationship might differ between typically developing children and children with ASD was additionally explored, as was age-related changes in this association.

 Methods:   Parents of 100 typically developing children (2-9 years old, 52% male) and 97 children with ASD (3-9 years old, 80% male) completed questionnaires about their child including the Sensory Over-Responsivity Inventory (SOR), the Effortful Control subscale of the Very Short Children’s Behaviour Questionnaire (EC), and the Children’s Empathy Quotient (EQ). Scores on the Autism Quotient ‘red-flags’ version were additionally utilized to confirm high autism risk in the ASD group and low risk in the typical group.

 Results: Children with ASD were reported to show less EC, more SOR, and lower EQ scores than the typically developing children. In the typical sample, greater EC and lower SOR was associated with higher EQ scores, but there was also an interaction between EC and SOR such that children with a combination of high SOR and high EC scored the highest on the EQ, while high SOR and low EC predicted the lowest EQ scores. There was also an age interaction in the typical sample, such that the the EC/SOR interaction effect on EQ strengthened with age.   In the ASD sample, however, the pattern was very different, only EC playing any role in EQ and no age interactions noted.

 Conclusions: The relationship between SOR and EC in predicting empathy may be different in ASD than it is in typically developing children. Results are discussed with regards to sensory reactivity, self-regulation, and empathy in the general population as well as possible explanations for a lack of relationship between these variables in ASD.