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Positive emotional engagement and autism risk

Brittany L Lambert-Brown1, Nicole M McDonald1, Whitney I Mattson1

  • 1Department of Psychology.

Developmental Psychology
|May 5, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Early positive emotional engagement in infants, including smiling rate, may differ in high-risk siblings for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some differences observed in high-risk siblings were not consistently linked to later ASD diagnosis.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Infant Behavior

Background:

  • Positive emotional engagement is crucial in early infant development.
  • Deficits in emotional engagement are a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
  • Younger siblings of children with ASD (high-risk siblings) may show early variations in emotional engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate positive emotional engagement in 6-month-old high-risk siblings.
  • To compare emotional engagement between high-risk siblings with and without later ASD diagnosis and low-risk controls.
  • To determine if early emotional engagement differences predict ASD outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the face-to-face/still face protocol to assess infant-parent interactions at 6 months.
  • Measured smiling rate and contingent responsiveness to parental smiles.
  • Included 43 high-risk siblings (11 later diagnosed with ASD) and 25 low-risk siblings.

Main Results:

  • Low-risk and high-risk siblings without ASD exhibited the still-face effect (reduced smiling).
  • High-risk siblings with later ASD outcomes did not show the typical still-face effect.
  • While high-risk siblings without ASD were less responsive to smiles, those with eventual ASD did not differ in contingent responsiveness.

Conclusions:

  • Subtle differences in positive emotional engagement are present in early development of high-risk siblings.
  • These early differences are not consistently associated with later autism spectrum disorder outcomes.
  • Early emotional engagement may be a complex indicator, requiring further investigation in relation to ASD development.

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