Development of interpersonal and environmental assessment tool to measure emotion regulation of people with autism spectrum disorder

Research Project

Project/Area Number	18K13205
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Basic Section 09060:Special needs education-related
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	Matsuzaki Yutaka 東北大学, 加齢医学研究所, 助教 (10806160)
Project Period (FY)	2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2019: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2018: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Keywords	自閉スペクトラム症 / 感情 / 不安 / 怒り / 共感 / emotion regulation / 情動制御 / 自閉症スペクトラム障害 / 評価ツール
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In this research project, we identified situations in which children with ASD have difficulties in emotional regulation. It was found that a particularly large proportion of these difficulties were related to indicators of persistent anxiety, sadness, and depression. This difficulty was found to be strongly correlated with the frequency of parent-child and parent-school consultations. On the other hand, the intensity of ASD symptoms was negatively correlated with the above-mentioned difficulties. This suggests that the difficulty tends to be higher among those with ASD who have relatively weak ASD symptoms. Other factors such as suppression of anger and irritability, expression of compassion and empathy, and expression of desirable emotions in social situations were also found to be supportive needs for emotional regulation in children with ASD, and should be considered in educational evaluations.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	この研究課題ではASDの児童・生徒が感情を抑えたり、出すのが難しい場面にどのようなものがあるのか抽出することで、彼ら/彼女らの感情に関する支援ニーズを評価する尺度の作成に寄与することが目的であった。調査からASDの児童・生徒が感情に関して困りやすい要素として(1)不安や悲しみの持続性、(2)怒りの抑制、(3)あわれみや共感の表出といったものが抽出された。特に(1)のニーズが高いことが相談頻度の観点などから推察された。