Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

A Case–Control Study of Personality Style and Psychopathology in Parents of Subjects with Autism

  • ORGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To probe the specificity of traits that might be conceptualised as the broader phenotype of autism, parents of subjects with autism from simplex and multiplex families as well as parents of subjects with obsessive–compulsive disorders (OCD), early onset schizophrenia (EOS) and mental retardation (MR) were assessed using the Personality Style and Disorder Inventory and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. Autism parents’ scores were increased on several subscales (e.g. reserved/schizoid, depression) compared to parents of subjects with OCD, EOS and normative data, but not in comparison to MR parents. Results provide some support for the specificity of the broader phenotype of autism. The burden of raising severely disabled children could not be ruled out as a factor influencing parts of this phenotype.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Handbook of psychiatric measures (pp. 81–84). Washington: American Psychiatric Association.

  • Bailey, A., LeCouteur, A., Gottesman, I., Bolton, P., Simonoff, E., Yuzda, E., & Rutter, M. (1995). Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a British twin study. Psychological Medicine, 25, 63–77.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, A., Palferman, S., Heavey, L., & LeCouteur, A. (1998). Autism: the phenotype in relatives. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 28, 369–392.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S., Richler, J., Bisarya, D., Gurunathan, N., & Wheelwright, S. (2003). The systemizing quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 358, 361–374.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bölte, S., & Poustka, F. (2003). The recognition of facial affect in first-degree relatives of individuals with autism and individuals with schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 33, 907–915.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bolton, P., Macdonald, H., Pickles, A., Rios, P., Goode, S., Crowson, M., Bailey, A., & Rutter, M. (1994). A case–control family history study of autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, 877–900.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bolton, P., Pickles, A., Murphy, M., & Rutter, M. (1998). Autism, affective and other psychiatric disorders: patterns of familial aggregation. Psychological Medicine, 28, 385–395.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. N., & Todd, R. D. (2003). Autistic traits in the general population: a twin study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 524–530.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cox, A., Rutter, M., Newman, S., & Bartak, L. (1975). A comparative study of infantile autism and specific developmental receptive language disorder: II. Parental characteristics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 146–159.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, G., Webb, S., Schellenberg, G. D., Dager, S., Friedman S., Aylward, E., & Richards, T. (2002). Defining the broader phenotype of autism: genetic, brain, and behavioral perspectives. Developmental Psychopathology, 14, 581–611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeLong, R., & Nohria, C. (1994). Psychiatric family history and neurological disease in autistic spectrum disorders. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 36, 441–448.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Englert, E., & Poustka, F. (1995). The Frankfurt child and adolescent psychiatry documentation system—development and methodological principles with reference to quality assurance. Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie, 44, 158–167.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Faul, F., & Erdfelder, E. (1992). GPower: a priori, post-hoc and compromise power analysis for MS-DOS. Bonn, Germany: Department of Psychology, Bonn University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Folstein, S. E., & Rosen-Sheidley, B. (2001). Genetics of autism: complex aetiology for a heterogeneous disorder. Nature Reviews, 12, 943–955.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folstein, S. E., & Rutter, M. (1977). Infantile autism: a genetic study of 21 twin pairs. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 18, 297–321.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Franke, G. (1995). SCL-90-R: die Symptom-Checkliste von Derogatis—Deutsche Version—Manual. Göttingen: Beltz Test.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, W. K., Price, L. H., Rasmussen, S. A., Mazure, C., Delgado, P., Heninger, G. R., & Charney, D. S. (1989). The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. II. Validity. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 1012–1016.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goussé, V., Plumet, M. H., Chabane, N., Mouren-Siméoni, M. C., Ferradian, N., & Leboyer, M. (2002). Fringe phenotypes in autism: a review of clinical, biochemical and cognitive studies. European Psychiatry, 17, 120–128.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhl, J. (2001). Motivation und Persönlichkeit: Interaktionen psychischer Systeme. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhl, J., & Beckmann, J. (1994). Volition and personality: action versus state orientation. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhl, J., & Kazen, M. (1997). Persönlichkeits-Stil- und Störungs-Inventar. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landa, R., Piven, J., Wzorek, M., Gayle, J., Chase, G., & Folstein, S. E. (1992). Social language use in parents of autistic individuals. Psychological Medicine, 22, 245–254.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Landa, R., Wzorek, M., Piven, J., Folstein, S., & Isaacs, C. (1991). Spontaneous narrative discourse characteristics of parents of autistic individuals. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34, 1339–1345.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lauritsen, M. B., & Ewald, H. (2001). The genetics of autism. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 103, 411–427.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E. H., Leventhal, B., DiLavore, P. C., Pickles, A., & Rutter, M. (2000). The ADOS-G (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic): a standard measure of social-communication deficits associated with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 205–223.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., Rutter, M., & LeCouteur, A. (1994). Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised: a revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 659–685.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, M., Bolton, P., Pickles, A., Fombonne, E., Piven, J., & Rutter, M. (2000). Personality traits of the relatives of autistic probands. Psychological Medicine, 30, 1411–1424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O‘Hanrahan, S., Fitzgerald, M., & O‘Reagan, M. (1999). Personality traits in parents of people with autism. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 16, 59–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piven, J., Chase, G. A., Landa, R., Wzorek, M., Gayle, J., Cloud, D., & Folstein, S. E. (1991). Psychiatric disorders in the parents of autistic individuals. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 471–478.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piven, J., & Palmer, P. (1999). Psychiatric disorder and the broad autism phenotype: evidence from a family study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 557–563.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D., & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185–190.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D., & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 74, 398–411.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piven, J., Wzorek, M., Landa, R., Lainhart, J., Bolton, P., Chase, G. A., & Folstein, S. E. (1994). Personality characteristics of the parents of autistic individuals. Psychological Medicine, 24, 783–795.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raven, J. C. (1996). Progressive matrices: a perceptual test of intelligence. Individual form. Oxford, UK: Oxford Psychologists Press Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutter, M. (2000). Genetic studies of autism: from the 1970s into the millennium. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 3–14.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seltzer, M. M., Abbeduto, L., Krauss, M. W., Greenberg, J., & Swe, A. (2004). Comparison groups in autism family research: Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome and schizophrenia. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 41–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smalley, S. L., McCracken, K., & Tanguay P. (1995). Autism, affective disorders, and social phobia. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 60, 19–26.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spiker, D., Lotspeich, L. J., Dimiceli, S., Myers, R. M., & Risch, N. (2002). Behavioral phenotypic variation in autism multiplex families: evidence for a continuous severity gradient. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 114, 129–136.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Szatmari, P., Jones, M. B., Fisman, S., Tuff, L., Bartolucci, G., Mahoney, W. J., & Bryson, S. E. (1995). Parents and collateral relatives of children with pervasive developmental disorders: a family history study. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 60, 282–289.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuang, M. T., Stone, W. S., & Faraone, S. (2002). Understanding predisposition to schizophrenia: toward intervention and prevention. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 47, 518–526.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wing, L. (1988). The continuum of autistic characteristics. In: E. Schopler, & G. B. Mesibov, (Eds.), Diagnosis and assessment in autism. New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolff, S., Narayan, S., & Moyes, B. (1988). Personality characteristics of parents of autistic children: a controlled study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 29, 143–153.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zaworka, W., Hand, I., Jauernig, G., & Lünenschloß, K. (1983). Hamburger Zwangsinventar (HZI). Weinheim: Beltz.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

Parts of this work were supported by grant Po 255/17 of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M., Germany

    Sven Bölte & Fritz Poustka

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Susan Knecht

  3. Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie des Kindes- und Jugendalters, Deutschordenstr. 50, 60528, Frankfurt/M., Germany

    Sven Bölte

Authors
  1. Sven Bölte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susan Knecht
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fritz Poustka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sven Bölte.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bölte, S., Knecht, S. & Poustka, F. A Case–Control Study of Personality Style and Psychopathology in Parents of Subjects with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 37, 243–250 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0165-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0165-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation