A Systematic Literature Review of Emotion Regulation Measurement in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties are a potential common factor underlying the presentation of multiple emotional and behavioral problems in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). To provide an overview of how ER has been studied in individuals with ASD, we conducted a systematic review of the past 20 years of ER research in the ASD population, using established keywords from the most comprehensive ER literature review of the typically developing population to date. Out of an initial sampling of 305 studies, 32 were eligible for review. We examined the types of methods (self-report, informant report, naturalistic observation/ behavior coding, physiological, and open-ended) and the ER constructs based on Gross and Thompson's modal model (situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation). Studies most often assessed ER using one type of method and from a unidimensional perspective. Across the 32 studies, we documented the types of measures used and found that 38% of studies used self-report, 44% included an informant report measure, 31% included at least one naturalistic observation/behavior coding measure, 13% included at least one physiological measure, and 13% included at least one open-ended measure. Only 25% of studies used more than one method of measurement. The findings of the current review provide the field with an in-depth analysis of various ER measures and how each measure taps into an ER framework. Future research can use this model to examine ER in a multicomponent way and through multiple methods. Autism Res 2014, 7: 629-648 [American Psychiatric Association, 2013], and there is considerable evidence that the majority also struggle with associated emotional problems. For instance, in a population derived cohort of 5-to 16-year-olds, Totsika, Hastings, Emerson, Lancaster, and Berridge [2011] found that 85% of youth with ASD without an intellectual disability (ID) had clinically significant levels of hyperactivity, 74% of emotional problems, and 64% of conduct problems, compared to much lower rates in a typically developing comparison group (19% hyperactivity, 18% emotional problems, and 22% conduct problems). Further, youth with ID and ASD had higher rates of emotional disorders than those with only ID (88% vs. 63% for hyperactivity, 71% vs. 42% for emotional problems, and 65% vs. 46% for conduct problems, respectively). There is also considerable co-occurrence of multiple emotional problems in individuals with ASD. Approximately 40-50% of youth with ASD are estimated to meet criteria for two or more psychiatric disorders, often combining attentional or behavioral problems (e.g. ADHD) with internalizing problems (e.g. anxiety disorder), even after taking into account symptoms that may be related to core ASD sociocommunicative and behavioral symptoms [Leyfer et al., 2006;Simonoff et al., 2008].

Emotion Regulation: A Transdiagnostic Perspective on a New RDoC Domain

“…Weiss, Thomson, and Chan (2014) recently conducted a systematic literature review of emotion regulation measurement in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, and identified several measures of naturalistic observation of emotion regulation; for example, Jahromi, Meek, and Ober-Reynolds (2012) conducted a study in which coders coded for 12 emotion regulation strategies in 10-second intervals. Results indicated that children with autism employed more avoidance and venting strategies when faced with frustration.…”

Neural Mechanisms of Emotion Regulation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Additionally, ER is important not only for understanding associated features of ASD, but is relevant to core symptoms of social communication that define ASD as well (Mazefsky et al, 2013; Weiss, Thomson, & Chan, 2014). For example, emotional awareness, recognition of emotional experience in others, and impaired identification and expression of social gestures may all reflect impaired modulation of social-emotional information processing (Bachevalier & Loveland, 2006; Lecavalier, 2006; Zwaigenbaum et al, 2005) because they require the adjustment of internal affective experiences to changing environmental conditions (Gross, 2013; Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002; Ray, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2008).…”

Emotion Regulation and Parent Co-Regulation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…In addition, all children had an IQ above 79, and it is unclear how the current findings might differ for school-age children with more severe ASD symptomatology or lower intellectual functioning. This study also could have benefited from using multiple measures of child emotion regulation (e.g., parent report, behavioral observation, psychophysical measurement; Weiss et al 2014) instead of relying solely on coding child report of emotion regulation strategies.…”

“…A recent systematic review of emotion regulation in children with ASD found that research has largely relied on self-report (38%) or informant report (44%); fewer used naturalistic observation/behavior coding (31%) or open-ended measures (13%); and only two (6%) of the studies explored correlates of emotion regulation (Weiss et al 2014). Self-report in children with ASD may be problematic due to the lack of correspondence with parent report (Mazefsky et al 2011; Meyer et al 2006; White et al 2009) and with physiological measures (Shalom et al 2006), raising the question of the validity of self-report responses in this population.…”