Does broad autism phenotype traits effect mother-child interaction?: a cross-sectional study from Turkey

Abstract

Objectives

Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) is defined as personality, social, and language features that parallel the defining behavioral characteristics of autism spectrum disorder, including social deficits, communication abnormalities, and stereotyped repetitive behavior. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of maternal BAP characteristics on the dynamic interaction between mothers and their children.

Methods

Children aged 12–60 months who were referred to the Infant Mental Health Unit of our outpatient clinic were analyzed. Forty-one children who were diagnosed with autism and 35 children who were diagnosed with global developmental delay (GDD) and their mothers were included in the study. The Parent–Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIR-GAS), Autism-Spectrum Quotient (ASQ), Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire, and Recognition of Emotional Maltreatment Scale (REMS) were used.

Results

The PIR-GAS score was significantly lower in the autism group than in the GDD group, and mothers of children with autistic children exhibited higher BAP scores.

Conclusions

Our study suggests a link between maternal BAP scores and the quality of mother-child relationships. Further studies are needed to examine and improve our ability to evaluate the effects of parental BAP in terms of parental intervention effectiveness.

Keywords:

• Autism spectrum disorder
• broad autism phenotype
• mother-child relationship

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all clinic teams involved with data collection.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before the initial assessment. Ethical approval was granted through the human research ethics committee of Ankara University Faculty of Medicine (Approval Number: I3-69-19).

Author contributions

Tuğba Menteşe Babayiğit: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, visualization, investigation, writing–original draft. Rahime Duygu Temelturk: data curation, formal analysis, visualization, investigation, writing–review, and editing. Merve Cıkılı Uytun: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, visualization, writing–original draft, writing–review and editing. Gokçe Yagmur Efendi: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing–review and editing. Esra Yurumez: conceptualization, methodology, writing–review and editing. Didem Behice Oztop: conceptualization, methodology, writing–review, and editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study’s findings are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.