Tal Saban M, Kirby A
School of Occupational Therapy, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
The Dyscovery Centre Innovation House Treforest CF37 1DL, University of South Wales, UK.
Hum Mov Sci. 2019 Feb;63:62-72. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2018.11.005. Epub 2018 Nov 29.
Empathy is defined as an emotional or cognitive response to another's emotional state. It is considered essential for navigating meaningful social interactions and is closely linked to prosocial behavior. Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is characterized by an impairment of motor coordination that has a marked impact on both academic and day-to-day living activities. Children and adolescents with DCD have been shown to have less developed social support and friendships. The research linking empathy and DCD is scarce. The aims of this study are to gain an understanding of the relationship between DCD and empathy in young adults with DCD only, and with DCD coupled with other neurodevelopmental disorders, in comparison with typically developing adults.
The study included 212 young adults aged 18-40 years. The subjects in this study were from mainstream populations in the UK. The study groups included: (a) "DCD only" with 42 individuals; (b) "DCD + ASD" with 21 individuals; (c) "DCD + ADHD" with 45 individuals; (d) "DCD + ASD + ADHD" with 29 individuals; and (e) the control group of 75 individuals.
ANOVA on the Empathy Questionnaire (EQ) showed a statistically significant difference between groups (F [4,257] = 35.63; p < 0.001; η = 0.409). No significant differences were found between the DCD-only and the control. MANOVA was performed to assess differences in the Socialising and Friendship Questionnaire (SAF-Q) scores. The results showed a statistically significant difference between groups (F [8,257] = 9.98; p < 0.001; η = 0.162). Pearson correlation coefficients were performed, revealing significant high correlations between the EQ and the two parts of the SAF-Q ("past" and "currently").
The results of this study indicate that social difficulties in the DCD-only group are not due to lack of empathy, but may be driven by an accumulation of external factors. In this study we also concluded that DCD does not appear to be the factor that reduces the ability to empathize, but rather the presence of ADHD and/or ASD.
共情被定义为对他人情绪状态的情感或认知反应。它被认为是进行有意义的社交互动所必需的，并且与亲社会行为密切相关。发育性协调障碍（DCD）的特征是运动协调受损，这对学业和日常生活活动都有显著影响。患有DCD的儿童和青少年的社会支持和友谊发展较差。将共情与DCD联系起来的研究很少。本研究的目的是了解仅患有DCD的年轻人以及患有DCD并伴有其他神经发育障碍的年轻人与发育正常的成年人相比，DCD与共情之间的关系。
该研究纳入了212名年龄在18至40岁之间的年轻人。本研究的受试者来自英国的主流人群。研究组包括：（a）“仅患有DCD”组，42人；（b）“DCD + 自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）”组，21人；（c）“DCD + 注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）”组，45人；（d）“DCD + ASD + ADHD”组，29人；以及（e）对照组，75人。
对共情问卷（EQ）进行方差分析（ANOVA）显示，各组之间存在统计学上的显著差异（F [4,257] = 35.63；p < 0.001；η = 0.409）。仅患有DCD的组与对照组之间未发现显著差异。进行多变量方差分析（MANOVA）以评估社交与友谊问卷（SAF-Q）得分的差异。结果显示，各组之间存在统计学上的显著差异（F [8,257] = 9.98；p < 0.001；η = 0.162）。进行了Pearson相关系数分析，结果显示EQ与SAF-Q的两个部分（“过去”和“当前”）之间存在显著的高度相关性。
本研究结果表明，仅患有DCD的组中的社交困难并非由于缺乏共情，而是可能由外部因素的积累所致。在本研究中，我们还得出结论，DCD似乎不是降低共情能力的因素，而是ADHD和/或ASD的存在。
