Case-control study on temperament characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorders aged 3-7 years old in Harbin

Objective To explore the differences of temperament characteristics between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and normal children, and to provide evidence for early detection of ASD children and the development of personalized treatment plans. Methods In this case-control study, we enrolled 129 ASD children and 129 normal children aged 3-7 years. The Behavioral Style Questionnaire (BSQ) scale was used to assess the temperament. Results ASD children got higher scores in terms of "activity level", "withdrawal", "adaptability", "emotional nature", "persistence", and "response threshold" temperament dimensionality scores (P<0.05), and lower scores in terms of "rhythmical", "response intensity" temperament dimensionality scores than normal children (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in "attention dispersiveness" between ASD group and control group (P>0.05). Among the children in the ASD and control group, the proportion of each temperament type was "easy to raise temperament type" (41.8% vs 62.8%), "partially easy to raise temperament type" (31.8% vs 27.9%), "partially difficult to raise temperament type" (17.1% vs 6.2%), "slow-up-to-warm temperament type" (7.7% vs 2.3%) and "difficult to raise temperament type" (1.6% vs 0.8%).Statistical analysis showed that the rate of "easy to raise temperament type" was lower than that in normal children (P<0.05), while the rates of "partially easy to raise temperament type", "partially difficult to raise temperament type", "difficult to raise temperament type", and "slow-up-to-warm temperament type" in ASD children were higher (P<0.05). Conclusion There was significant difference in temperament characteristics between ASD children and normal children. The evaluation of temperament type contributes to early detection of ASD children and provides a reference for their behavioral correction.