Continuity of temperament subgroup classifications from infancy to toddlerhood in the context of early autism traits

• Published in: Autism research 2023-03, Vol.16 (3), p.591-604
• Main Authors: Chetcuti, Lacey, Uljarević, Mirko, Varcin, Kandice J., Boutrus, Maryam, Dimov, Stefanie, Pillar, Sarah, Barbaro, Josephine, Dissanayake, Cheryl, Green, Jonathan, Whitehouse, Andrew J. O., Hudry, Kristelle
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Autistic Disorder - diagnosis; child development; Children; Classification; Community health care; Contingency tables; Continuity; Cross-Sectional Studies; Emotions; Female; Humans; Infant; Infants; Inhibition (psychology); Longitudinal Studies; Male; social–emotional functioning; Subgroups; Temperament
• ISSN: 1939-3792; 1939-3806
• DOI: 10.1002/aur.2874

Our previous cross‐sectional investigation (Chetcuti et al., 2020) showed that infants with autism traits could be divided into distinct subgroups based on temperament. This longitudinal study builds on this existing work by exploring the continuity of temperament subgroup classifications and their associations with behavioral/clinical phenotypic features from infancy to toddlerhood. 103 infants (68% male) showing early signs of autism were referred to the study by community healthcare professionals and seen for assessments when aged around 12‐months (Time 1), 18‐months (Time 2), and 24‐months (Time 3). Latent profile analysis revealed inhibited/low positive, active/negative reactive, and sociable/well‐regulated subgroups at each timepoint, and a unique reactive/regulated subgroup at Time 3. Cross‐tabulations indicated a significant likelihood of children having a recurrent subgroup classification from one timepoint to the next, and no apparent patterns to the movement of children who did change from one subgroup to another over time. Temperament subgroups were associated with concurrent child social–emotional functioning and autism traits, but unrelated to child age, sex, or developmental level. These findings suggest that temperament subgroup classifications might represent a reliable and very early indicator of autism characteristics and social–emotional functioning among infants/toddlers with autism traits. Lay Summary Features of temperament make individuals on the autism spectrum different from one another and predict many important outcomes, but just how stable are these? To address this question, we (a) characterized the temperament features of children with autism traits at three timepoints across infancy and toddlerhood and (b) explored how temperament features were associated with social–emotional outcomes at each timepoint. We observed significant continuity in each respect, concluding that temperament may be a reliable early sign of social–emotional outcomes in children with autism traits.