Exploring the Profiles of Emotion Regulation and Empathy in Children With Intellectual Disabilities

Children with intellectual disabilities face challenges in emotion regulation and empathy, which can affect their social inclusion. However, little is known about the links between these domains in this population. This study aimed (1) to examine the relationship between emotion regulation and affective, cognitive and behavioural empathy and (2) to identify subgroups of children according to their strengths or difficulties.

Parents of 79 children with intellectual disabilities completed the ERC-vf, GEM-vf and EmQue-vf.

A positive relationship between emotion regulation and empathy emerged, but no link between lability/negativity and empathy was observed. Four subgroups were identified, with a subgroup of children experiencing difficulties in emotion regulation and empathy and another showing high skills in both areas. The other two subgroups included children with more nuanced skills.

This study emphasised the importance of providing intervention to children presenting difficulties in these areas to foster their social skills.