In recent years, inpatients with developmental disorders including autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) has been increasing in child and adolescent psychiatry. It has been reported some nurses are unable to cope with characteristics of developmental disorders and have negative feelings in patient behavior. In order to support people with developmental disorders, it is necessary to find the strength of patients, make them aware of patients, and make use of it. For the development of their metacognitive abilities is slow. Meta cognition does not go well and it is difficult to conscious of their strength. It is considered difficult to have self-consciousness. It was pointed out that their self-esteem is low, and support to improve self-esteem is needed.
Therefore, clarifying the relationship among AQ, self-affirmation, and self-esteem, it is possible to deepen the understanding of adolescents with ASD. It was considered useful for nursing at adolescent psychiatric wards.
The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship among AQ, self-affirmation, and self-esteem in adolescents with ASD.
Methods:
a) Subjects
12 subjects who were inpatients at the adolescent psychiatry in Japan were recruited in the present study. They were children with ASD and from 7th-grade to 12th-grade.
b) Survey method
It was investigated with Japanese version of AQ, Sense of Self-Positiveness Scale, and Self-Esteem Scale. Gender and grade were gathered from medical records. Sense of Self-Positiveness Scale has 3 subscales (self-acceptance, self-fulfilling attitude, and sense of fulfillment). For each scale, the spearman’s correlation coefficient was calculated. Survey period was from November 2016 to August 2017.
c) Ethical consideration
This study was approved by Ethics Committee of University of Tsukuba Faculty of Medicine, and Research Facility. Informed consent was obtained from participants and their guardian caregivers before the initiation of any research procedures.
Results:
The subjects are 5 junior high school students and 7 high school students, 6 boys and 6 girls. The average of AQ was 27.9 (SD = 6.0). The average of Sense of Self-Positiveness Scale were self-acceptance: 11.9 (SD = 4.8), self-fulfilling attitude: 22.8 (SD = 7.4), sense of fulfillment: 20.3 (SD = 6.8). The average of Self-Esteem Scale was 20.5 (SD = 5.8).
The correlation coefficient between each scale, AQ was shown to be correlated with self-acceptance (r = -.48), self-fulfilling attitude (r = -.14), sense of fulfillment (r = -.57), and Self-Esteem (r = -.12). Self-Esteem was shown to be correlated with self-acceptance (r = .31), self-fulfilling attitude (r = .49), and sense of fulfillment (r = .55).
Discussion:
A negative correlation between AQ and self-acceptance and sense of fulfillment was shown, it was suggested that those with strong autism characteristics were not self - acceptance or sense of fulfillment. On the other hand, there was no correlation between AQ and Self-Esteem, and it was suggested that the strength of autism characteristics does not lower self-esteem. Furthermore, a positive correlation was confirmed between Self-Esteem and Self-affirmation. From the above, it was suggested that finding their own strength and raising self-affirmative consciousness could lead to an improvement in Self-Esteem.
Conclusion:
In adolescents with ASD, AQ and Self-affirmation had a negative correlation, and a positive correlation was found between Self-affirmation and Self-Esteem. On the other hand, there was no correlation between AQ and Self-Esteem.