When no one’s watching: Older autistic children are relatively emotionally expressive when they are alone

• In Event: Psychosocial and Sexual Wellbeing among Youth with Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

In a previous study, we (2018) reported that older autistic children (ages 10-17) were significantly more expressive, i.e., produced more facial expressions, laughter, and non-laughter vocalizations, than non-autistic counterparts while watching videos in a semi-non-social environment. A “semi-non-social” environment refers to the fact that participants watched videos without a viewing partner, but while there was a researcher in the room, sitting behind a partition.

These results could be explained by two somewhat contrasting theories: 1) Participants “felt alone” and unencumbered by social pressure, which allowed autistic adolescents to express emotions freely while non-autistic counterparts were less expressive because they did not have a viewing partner; 2) Groups differently perceived the role of the researcher in the room, where autistic participants viewed them as a social partner, leading them to amplify emotional expressions for the purposes of social engagement, while non-autistic adolescents viewed the researcher as a surreptitious observer, and suppressed their emotional reactions accordingly.

The current study follows up on these possibilities, by comparing video-watching expressiveness between two social contexts: a semi-non-social setting vs. a truly solitary setting. If autistic participants were more expressive in the original study because they felt alone, autistic participants in the current study should be similarly expressive across the two conditions. However, if autistic participants are using emotional reactions as social overtures, they should be more expressive in the semi-non-social context than when they are truly alone.

Fifteen autistic and 16 non-autistic participants (10-17years, p=0.89) were video-taped as they watched two Pixar® shorts. Videos were similar in length (about 1:30) and involved the same characters engaged in similar activities. All participants watched the first video alone in a testing room and the second video while a researcher was in the room, sitting behind a partition.

Five coders watched each participant’s reactions to the two videos and identified facial expressions, laughter, and non-laughter vocalizations (e.g., gasps and self-talk) in ELAN (Version 6.4, 2022). We summed counts of each type of emotional expression per coder, per video, and averaged for each participant. These averages served as the outcome variable in a 2x2x3 (video x group x emotional expression type) repeated-measures ANOVA.

There was a significant main effect of group (F(1,29) = 5.659, p = 0.024) and a significant interaction between group and video-watching-context (F(1,29) = 5.522, p = 0.026). Autistic participants were more responsive overall, and relatively more responsive when they watched videos alone.

Results provide evidence that older autistic children are more expressive than non-autistic children when they are in less social environments. Against predictions, the autism group, but not the non-autistic group, modified expressiveness due to social context. The non-autistic group responded equivalently regardless of social context, while the autistic group dampened responsiveness when someone else was present. This shows that autistic children do not ignore the presence of others and are able to modulate responsiveness based on social context. In summary, autistic children are sensitive to social context and their emotional expressiveness varies accordingly.

Authors

• Emily Zane, James Madison University
  Presenting Author

• Vivian Eccleston

• Nicole Sperrazza, JMU

• Kimberly Clark, JMU

• Lindsey Filbey, JMU

• Rebecca Gerrior, JMU

• Anna Heflin, JMU

• Alyssa Kleeman, JMU

• Ruth B Grossman, Emerson College