The role of autism and alexithymia traits in behavioral and neural indicators of self-concept and self-esteem in adolescence

Renske van der Cruijsen, Sander Begeer, Eveline A Crone

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Developing a positive view of the self is important for maintaining a good mental health, as feeling negative about the self increases the risk of developing internalizing symptoms such as feelings of depression and anxiety. Even though autistic individuals regularly struggle with these internalizing feelings, and both self-concept and internalizing feelings are known to develop during adolescence, there is a lack of studies investigating the development of positive self-concept and self-esteem in autistic adolescents. Here, we studied academic, physical, and prosocial self-concept as well as self-esteem in adolescent males with and without autism on both the behavioral and neural level. We additionally focused on similarities in one's own and peers' perspectives on the self, and we assessed a potential role of alexithymia (i.e. having trouble identifying and describing one's feelings) in developing a more negative view of the self. Results showed that there were no group differences in self-esteem, self-concept, or underlying neural activation. This shows that autistic adolescent males use the same neural processes when they evaluate their traits. However, regardless of clinical diagnosis, a higher number of autism traits was related to a less positive physical and prosocial self-concept, whereas more difficulty identifying one's feelings was related to lowered self-esteem and less activation in medial prefrontal cortex during self-evaluations. Therefore, in treatment of autistic adolescents with low self-esteem, it is important to take into account and possibly aim to improve alexithymic traits as well.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2346-2361
Number of pages16
JournalAutism : the international journal of research and practice
Volume28
Issue number9
Early online date27 Feb 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

Funding

The authors thank the Dutch Autism Register (NAR) for their help in participant recruitment. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-VICI 453-14-001 E.A.C.). The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-VICI 453-14-001 E.A.C.).

FundersFunder number
Dutch Autism Register
National Association of Realtors
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk OnderzoekNWO-VICI 453-14-001

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