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Social‐cognitive, physiological, and neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation impairments: understanding anxiety in autism spectrum disorder
Author(s) -
White Susan W.,
Mazefsky Carla A.,
Dichter Gabriel S.,
Chiu Pearl H.,
Richey John A.,
Ollendick Thomas H.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2014.05.012
Subject(s) - anxiety , autism spectrum disorder , psychology , autism , cognition , context (archaeology) , arousal , social anxiety , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , psychiatry , paleontology , biology
Anxiety is one of the most common clinical problems among children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet we know little about its etiology in the context of ASD. We posit that emotion regulation (ER) impairments are a risk factor for anxiety in ASD. Specifically, we propose that one reason why anxiety disorders are so frequently comorbid with ASD is because ER impairments are ubiquitous to ASD, stemming from socio‐cognitive, physiological, and neurological processes related to impaired cognitive control, regulatory processes, and arousal. In this review, we offer a developmental model of how ER impairments may arise in ASD, and when (moderating influences) and how (meditational mechanisms) they result in anxiety.