School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Autism Res. 2020 Aug;13(8):1349-1357. doi: 10.1002/aur.2296. Epub 2020 May 11.
Recent evidence suggests the link between caregiver psychological distress and offspring social-emotional difficulties may be accounted for by offspring temperament characteristics. However, existing studies have only focused on neurotypical children; thus, the current study sought to provide an initial examination of this process among children with varying levels of early autism features. Participants included 103 infants aged 9-16 months (M = 12.39, SD = 1.97; 68% male) and their primary caregiver (96% mothers) referred to a larger study by community healthcare professionals. We utilized caregiver-reported measures of psychological distress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales), infant temperament (Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised) and internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment) and administered the Autism Observation Schedule for Infants (AOSI) at an assessment visit to quantify autism features. Infant negative affectivity was found to mediate positive concurrent relations between caregiver psychological distress and infant internalizing and externalizing symptoms, irrespective of the infants' AOSI score. While preliminary and cross-sectional, these results replicate and extend previous findings suggesting that the pathway from caregiver psychological distress to negative affectivity to social-emotional difficulties might also be apparent among infants with varying levels of autism features. More rigorous tests of causal effects await future longitudinal investigation. LAY SUMMARY: Offspring of caregivers experiencing psychological distress (i.e., symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or stress) may themselves be at increased risk of poor mental health outcomes. Several previous studies conducted with neurotypical children suggest that this link from caregiver-to-child may be facilitated by children's temperament qualities. This study was a preliminary cross-sectional exploration of these relationships in infants with features of autism. We found that infants' elevated negative emotions were involved in the relation between caregiver heightened psychological distress and children's mental health difficulties, consistent with neurotypical development. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1349-1357. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
最近的证据表明，照顾者心理困扰与子女社交情感困难之间的联系可能可以用子女的气质特征来解释。然而，现有研究仅关注于神经典型儿童；因此，本研究试图初步探讨自闭症特征程度不同的儿童中这一过程。参与者包括 103 名 9-16 个月大的婴儿（M=12.39，SD=1.97；68%为男性）及其主要照顾者（96%为母亲），他们是由社区医疗保健专业人员推荐参与一项更大规模研究的。我们利用照顾者报告的心理困扰（抑郁、焦虑和压力量表）、婴儿气质（婴儿行为问卷修订版）以及内化和外化症状（婴儿-幼儿社会和情感评估）来衡量自闭症特征，并在评估访问中使用婴儿自闭症观察量表（AOSI）来量化自闭症特征。研究发现，婴儿的消极情绪既中介了照顾者心理困扰与婴儿内化和外化症状的积极关系，也中介了婴儿 AOSI 得分与内化和外化症状的关系。虽然这些结果是初步的和横断面的，但它们复制和扩展了先前的发现，表明从照顾者心理困扰到消极情绪再到社交情感困难的途径也可能在自闭症特征程度不同的婴儿中显现。未来需要进行更严格的因果效应测试。
