An Investigation of the Relationship between Maternal Broader Autism Phenotype and Children's Theory of Mind

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between maternal broader autism phenotype and children’s theory of mind (TOM).

189 children from ages 4-5 (102 boys, 87 girls) along with their mothers participated in this study. The measurement instruments used in this study comprised the Farsi version of the Autistic Spectrum Quotient (AQ, Nejatisafa, Kazemi, & Alagheban Rad, 2003) and 3 samples of common false belief tasks (Sally-Anne task, crayon box-sticker, and potato chips- rocks).

The results indicated that there were negative significant relationship between total score of the broader autism phenotype and false belief tasks. Regression analysis also indicated that among the components of broader autism phenotype, attention switching, attention to details and imagination were significantly related to children's ability of theory of mind.

Based on heritability of autism phenotype, it can be concluded that children of mothers who acquire higher score in AQ scale show more characteristic features of autism phenotype than other children. So, it can be expected that children of mothers who acquire higher score in AQ scale as one of the cognitive component of the autism phenotype, have more problems than others in theory of mind.