Quantity and quality of empathic responding by autistic and non-autistic adolescent girls and boys.

ABSTRACT:

Lay abstract

Empathy is an important feature to feel for another person, evoking social support for the person in distress, and thus strengthening social cohesion. The question is to what extent empathic reactions can also be observed in autistic adolescents and autistic girls in particular, since their often mentioned good social skills might prevent their direct social environment from recognizing their autism. We examined 194 adolescents (autistic and non-autistic boys and girls) during an in vivo task in which the experimenter pretended to hurt herself while closing a binder. All responses by the participants were videotaped and coded by two independent coders. In line with our predictions, no group or gender differences appeared related to their attention for the event; yet au

SUBMITTER: Rieffe C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7812514 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature