Tan Chenghui, Song Huan, Ma Shanshan, Liu Xinyu, Zhao Yuan
Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
School of Educational Science, Neijiang Normal University, Neijiang, People's Republic of China.
Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2024 Mar 21;17:1385-1397. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S451028. eCollection 2024.
The existence of aggressive behavior in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) raises questions about whether cognitive and emotional factors in social information processing play a role between autistic traits (ATs) and aggressive behavior in the general population, especially in the context of Chinese culture. Moreover, given a possible gender difference in these variables, the study aimed to examine the effect of ATs on aggressive behavior, and the potential mediating role of hostile attribution bias and alexithymia on this association, as well as gender difference.
850 Chinese college students participated in the assessment, including their ATs, hostile attribution bias, alexithymia, and aggressive behavior. Pearson correlation, mediation effects analyses, and multiple-group comparison were conducted.
The results indicated that ATs indirectly predicted increased aggressive behavior through attribution bias and alexithymia. Gender difference in mediating effects was revealed: ATs indirectly predicted increased aggressive behavior through the serial mediating effect only in males.
Hostile attribution bias and alexithymia completely mediated the association between ATs and aggressive behavior, which contained the separate mediating effects of (a) hostile attribution bias and (b) alexithymia and the serial mediating effect of (c) hostile attribution bias and alexithymia. Gender differences in mediating effects were found only in the serial mediating effect, which was significant in males but not in females. The findings revealed the internal mechanism of ATs affecting aggressive behavior and gender difference, which have implications for the intervention of aggressive behavior of individuals with autism and those with high levels of ATs.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中攻击性行为的存在引发了关于社会信息处理中的认知和情感因素在一般人群，尤其是在中国文化背景下，自闭症特质（ATs）与攻击性行为之间是否起作用的问题。此外，鉴于这些变量可能存在性别差异，本研究旨在考察ATs对攻击性行为的影响，以及敌意归因偏差和述情障碍在这种关联中的潜在中介作用，以及性别差异。
850名中国大学生参与了评估，内容包括他们的ATs、敌意归因偏差、述情障碍和攻击性行为。进行了Pearson相关性分析、中介效应分析和多组比较。
结果表明，ATs通过归因偏差和述情障碍间接预测攻击性行为增加。揭示了中介效应的性别差异：仅在男性中，ATs通过系列中介效应间接预测攻击性行为增加。
敌意归因偏差和述情障碍完全中介了ATs与攻击性行为之间的关联，其中包含（a）敌意归因偏差和（b）述情障碍的单独中介效应以及（c）敌意归因偏差和述情障碍的系列中介效应。中介效应的性别差异仅在系列中介效应中发现，在男性中显著，在女性中不显著。这些发现揭示了ATs影响攻击性行为的内在机制和性别差异，对自闭症患者及高ATs水平个体的攻击性行为干预具有启示意义。
