Emotional regulation deficits in autism spectrum disorder: The role of alexithymia and interoception

Nour Ben Hassen; Francisco Molins; Dolores Garrote-Petisco; Miguel Ángel Serrano

doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104378

Emotional regulation deficits in autism spectrum disorder: The role of alexithymia and interoception

Res Dev Disabil. 2023 Jan:132:104378. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104378. Epub 2022 Nov 18.

Authors

Nour Ben Hassen¹, Francisco Molins¹, Dolores Garrote-Petisco², Miguel Ángel Serrano³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychobiology, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 13, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
² Centro de Psicología Lola (Valencia), Spain.
³ Department of Psychobiology, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 13, 46010 Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: m.angel.serrano@uv.es.

PMID: 36410287
DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104378

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze emotional regulation, alexithymia and interoception in a group of people diagnosed with ASD (n = 27), a normative population with a technical academic training (n = 30), and another group with a humanities/health training (n = 20). Results showed significantly higher scores in alexithymia and emotional regulation problems, and lower scores in interoception in the ASD group. Also, alexithymia was found to correlate with emotional regulation, which was found to be significant in all three groups. In addition, interoception correlated negatively with alexithymia in the ASD group. Finally, the scores of the group with the technical training were closer to those of the ASD group compared to the humanities/health group.

Keywords: ASD; Alexithymia; Emotional regulation; Interoception; Technical training.

MeSH terms

Affective Symptoms / psychology
Autism Spectrum Disorder* / psychology
Cognitive Dysfunction*
Emotional Regulation*
Humans
Interoception* / physiology