Analyzing Emotion Regulation Behaviors in Children and Adolescents with Non-Specific Intellectual Developmental...

Using an original behavioral-based analysis approach, this study explored behaviors that characterize children and adolescents with non-specific intellectual developmental disabilities (NS-IDDs) when they are led to regulate their emotions in a concrete situation. Behaviors of forty participants with NS-IDDs and forty typically developing (TD) children matched on verbal developmental age were observed and collected while they performed a task based on a simple game, The Great Ant Race, conceived to elicit both negative and positive emotions. Additionally, caregivers of each participant completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist-vf, a questionnaire assessing the participant’s emotion regulation skills in daily life. Results first revealed significant differences in emotion regulation skills between NS-IDD and TD participants, both on the caregiver’s questionnaire and in the behavioral data, with some links between the two types of data. Second, cluster analyses on behavioral data revealed three distinct behavioral profiles, differing in their proportions of NS-IDD and TD participants, but also in terms of chronological age, level of verbal development and caregiver-rated emotion regulation skills. These findings highlight the heterogeneity of emotion regulation behaviors in youth with NS-IDDs, emphasizing the value of precise behavioral observations to better understand individual specificities and adapt interventions and support.