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Mother–Stranger Comparisons of Social Attention in Jealousy Context and Attachment in HFASD and Typical Preschoolers

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An Erratum to this article was published on 20 January 2013

Abstract

Affective bonding, social attention, and intersubjective capabilities are all conditions for jealousy, and are deficient in autism. Thus, examining jealousy and attachment may elucidate the socioemotional deficit in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Jealousy was provoked in 30 high-functioning children with ASD (HFASD) and 30 typical children (ages 3–6 years) through two triadic social (storybook-reading) scenarios – mother-child-rival and stranger-child-rival. A control nonsocial scenario included mother/stranger-book. For both groups, higher jealousy expressions emerged for mother than stranger, and for social than nonsocial scenarios. Attachment security (using Attachment Q-Set) was lower for HFASD than typical groups, but attachment correlated negatively with jealous verbalizations for both groups and with jealous eye gazes for HFASD. Implications for understanding jealousy’s developmental complexity and the socioemotional deficit in ASD are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel

    Nirit Bauminger-Zvieli & Dana Shoham Kugelmass

Authors
  1. Nirit Bauminger-Zvieli
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  2. Dana Shoham Kugelmass
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Correspondence to Nirit Bauminger-Zvieli.

Additional information

This research was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) to N. Bauminger. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Dee B. Ankonina for her editorial contribution and to Dov Har-Even for his statistical consultation. Special thanks are extended to the children and families who took part in this study. This study was adapted from a dissertation of the second author guided by the first author.

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Bauminger-Zvieli, N., Kugelmass, D.S. Mother–Stranger Comparisons of Social Attention in Jealousy Context and Attachment in HFASD and Typical Preschoolers. J Abnorm Child Psychol 41, 253–264 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-012-9664-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-012-9664-1

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