Evaluation of Emotional Knowledge in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Avaliação do Conhecimento Emocional em Crianças com Transtorno do Espectro Autista

Evaluación del Conocimiento Emocional en Niños con Trastorno del Espectro Autista

Abstract:

  Children with autism spectrum disorder face challenges in recognizing and understanding emotions, which affects their social interactions. This study investigated how impairments in emotional knowledge influence the behavior of autistic children. The sample consisted of 36 children aged 8 to 13 years diagnosed with mild to moderate autism. Data were collected using the Emotion Matching Task, the Child Behavior Checklist, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, and sociodemographic questionnaires, applied during individual sessions lasting 40 to 50 minutes. Statistical analysis included Spearman’s correlation and the Mann-Whitney test. The results showed that children with autism spectrum disorder had greater difficulty identifying emotional expressions and revealed an inverse correlation between emotional knowledge and social problems and aggressiveness. These findings suggest that interventions focused on enhancing emotional knowledge may improve social adaptation and reduce problematic behaviors in children with autism.

Keywords:
autism spectrum disorder; emotional intelligence; behavioral symptoms