The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence, Executive Function and Children Exhibiting Autistic Behaviours in Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Emotional intelligence and executive function (EF) begin to develop in early childhood and have been found to be critical for a range of academic, behavioural, and social outcomes across the lifespan (Moffitt et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2017). Furthermore, EF is hypothesised to play a role in emotional intelligence, including components such as recognising and labelling emotions (Mohtasham et al., 2019). Research has highlighted that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have increased difficulties with components of emotional intelligence and EF compared to neurotypical individuals (Harms et al., 2010). The ability to successfully recognise and label emotions has been found to be related to the extent of autistic behaviours and symptomatology in children and adults with ASD, with this relationship also being found in individuals without a clinical diagnosis in the general population. Studies looking at non-clinical adults have revealed associations between individual level of autistic traits and performance on emotion recognition and labelling tasks (Poljac et al., 2011). Furthermore, components of EF have also been shown to relate to level of ASD symptoms, including in the broader autism phenotype (Vogan et al., 2018). Yet, no study to date has investigated these relationships in young children, a population perhaps most likely to be undiagnosed or showing subclinical behaviours related to ASD (Williams et al., 2009). Thus, the present study aimed to answer two research questions; 1) Is there an association between level of autistic behaviours and a measure of emotional intelligence in preschoolers? and 2) Does EF moderate the association between autistic behaviours and emotional intelligence in preschoolers?
We investigated how autistic traits related to performance on emotional intelligence and EF tasks in a large, diverse sample of preschoolers (N=441). Classroom teachers rated children on behaviours associated with ASD using the Autism subscale of the Social Skills Improvement System rating scale (SSIS-RS; Gresham & Elliot, 2008). Children’s emotional intelligence, specifically their ability to recognise and label emotional expressions, was directly assessed using the Emotion Matching Task (EMT, Izard et al., 2003). Children’s performance on the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulder (HTKS, McClelland et al., 2007) task was assessed to measure EF. Using multilevel regressions, and controlling for covariates including age, gender, race, ethnicity and income, a significant association was found between autistic traits and emotional intelligence (b=-.23, p< .001). Despite a significant negative correlation between EF and ASD traits (r=-.132, p<.001), and EF significantly predicting emotional intelligence (b=.1, p=.005), EF did not moderate the association between autistic traits and emotion abilities (b=.0, p=.536). These results suggest that EF difficulties and difficulties in recognising and labelling emotions are independent of each other in young children exhibiting autistic behaviours. The present study provides evidence to support the notion that components of emotional intelligence are negatively associated with autistic behaviours, furthering understanding of the relationship between autistic traits and emotional intelligence in young children. Additionally, these findings have several theoretical and clinical implications for necessary early interventions for children who exhibit behaviours related to ASD in early childhood.

Authors

• Abigail Eveleigh, Yale University
  Presenting Author

• Craig S. Bailey, Yale School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Irem Korucu, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author