Autism was formally recognized by the medical community in the first half of the twentieth century. Almost 100 years later, a small but growing literature has reported sex differences in the behavioral expression of autism. Recent research has also begun to explore the internal experiences of individuals with autism, including social and emotional insight. The current study examines sex differences in language-based markers of social and emotional insight in girls and boys with autism and non-autistic peers during semi-structured clinical interviews. Sixty-four participants aged 5 to 17 years were individually matched on chronological age and full-scale IQ to form four groups: autistic girls, autistic boys, non-autistic girls, and non-autistic boys. Transcribed interviews were scored using four scales that index aspects of social and emotional insight. Results revealed the main effects of diagnosis, such that youth with autism exhibited lower insight than non-autistic youth on scales indexing social cognition and object relations, emotional investment, and social causality. With regards to sex differences, across diagnoses, girls were rated higher than boys on the social cognition and object relations, emotional investment, and social causality scales. Examined within each diagnosis separately, clear sex differences emerged: both autistic and non-autistic girls demonstrated better social cognition and understanding of social causality than boys in their respective diagnostic groups. No within-diagnosis sex differences were found on the emotional insight scales, however. These results suggest that relatively enhanced social cognition and understanding of social causality in girls may be a population-level sex difference that is preserved in autism, despite the core social challenges that characterize this condition. The current findings reveal critical new information about insight into social and emotional thinking and relationships in autistic girls versus boys that have important implications for improving identification and designing effective interventions.

中文翻译：

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自闭症和非自闭症青少年社交和情感洞察力的性别差异

自闭症在二十世纪上半叶才被医学界正式承认。将近 100 年后，越来越多的文献报道了自闭症行为表现中的性别差异。最近的研究也开始探索自闭症患者的内在体验，包括社交和情感洞察力。目前的研究在半结构化临床访谈中检查了患有自闭症的女孩和男孩以及非自闭症同龄人的社会和情感洞察力的语言标记的性别差异。64 名年龄在 5 至 17 岁之间的参与者根据实际年龄和全面智商进行了单独配对，分为四组：自闭症女孩、自闭症男孩、非自闭症女孩和非自闭症男孩。转录的访谈使用四个衡量社会和情感洞察力的指标进行评分。结果揭示了诊断的主要影响，例如自闭症青少年在社会认知和客体关系、情感投资和社会因果关系指标方面的洞察力低于非自闭症青少年。关于性别差异，在所有诊断中，女孩在社会认知和客体关系、情感投资和社会因果关系量表上的评分高于男孩。在每个诊断中单独检查，出现了明显的性别差异：自闭症和非自闭症女孩在各自诊断组中表现出比男孩更好的社会认知和对社会因果关系的理解。然而，在情绪洞察力量表上没有发现诊断内的性别差异。这些结果表明，女孩相对增强的社会认知和对社会因果关系的理解可能是自闭症中保留的人口水平性别差异，尽管核心社会挑战是这种情况的特征。目前的研究结果揭示了关于洞察自闭症女孩与男孩的社会和情感思维以及关系的重要新信息，这些信息对于提高识别能力和设计有效的干预措施具有重要意义。