Self-Reported Empathy in Adult Women with Autism Spectrum Disorders – A Systematic Mini Review

Abstract

IntroductionThere is limited research on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in females. Although the empathy construct has been examined thoroughly in autism, little attention has been paid to empathy in adult women with this condition or to gender differences within the disorder.ObjectiveSelf-reported empathy in adult women with ASD was examined and compared to that of typically developed men and women as well as to men with this condition.MethodsOnline databases were searched for articles investigating self-reported empathy among adult women with ASD. Only six studies comparing women to men were identified.ResultsAll studies found women with an ASD to report lower levels of empathy than typically developed women, and typically developed men, but similar levels to men with this condition.ConclusionThe self-reported empathic ability of women diagnosed with ASD resembles that of their male counterparts most closely; they show a hypermasculinisation in empathy. This is particularly surprising considering the large gender difference in empathy in the general population.DiscussionOne of the limitations of this review is that the current diagnostic criteria for ASD are oriented towards male-specific behaviour and fail to integrate gender specific characteristics. Hence, women diagnosed with ASD are likely to be at the male end of the continuum. The suggested hypermasculinisation of women on the spectrum, as evident from this review, may therefore be exaggerated due to a selection bias.

Social and non-social autism symptoms and trait domains are genetically dissociable

“…The EQ is a short, 40-item self-report measure of empathy, which has been widely used and has good psychometric properties 60,120 . In addition, differences in aspects of empathy compared to the neurotypical population have been widely reported in autism 50,51,121 , and empathy is one of the items in measures such as ADOS-G. Friendship satisfaction was selected as difficulties in making friends is listed as a criteria for an autism diagnosis in the DSM-5 1 .…”

Autism spectrum disorder traits are associated with empathic abilities in adults with anorexia nervosa

“…For example, between 4 and 50% of individuals with AN show high ASD traitsscoring above clinical thresholds on diagnostic interviews for ASD (Anckarsäter et al, 2012;Vagni et al, 2016;Westwood et al, 2018Westwood et al, , 2017. Individuals with ASD show difficulties in ToM (Happé, 1994;Kleinman et al, 2001), emotion recognition (Bal et al, 2010;Harms et al, 2010;Hubert et al, 2007), empathy (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004;Kok et al, 2016), and social attention (Chita-Tegmark, 2016). Further, ASD traits in the general population are associated with more difficulties in these areas (Blain et al, 2017;Halliday et al, 2014;Luo et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2018).…”

Cognitive and Affective Empathy in Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Differences in empathic abilities have been observed in a number of psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia ( 4 , 5 ), autism spectrum disorder [ASD; ( 6 , 7 )], borderline personality disorder [BPD; ( 8 )], and depression ( 9 ). Importantly, far from there being a universal deficit in empathic abilities, research in these psychiatric disorders shows that there is often a difficulty in a specific aspect of empathy, while other empathic abilities remain intact.…”