Continuity of temperament subgroup classifications from infancy to toddlerhood in the context of early autism traits

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Chetcuti, L., Uljarević, M., Varcin, K. J., Boutrus, M., Dimov, S., Pillar, S., Barbaro, J., Dissanayake, C., Green, J., Whitehouse, A., Hudry, K., & Team, T. A. (2022). Continuity of temperament subgroup classifications from infancy to toddlerhood in the context of early autism traits. Autism Research, 16(3), 591-604. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2874

Publication date: 13 Dec 2022 Added to AutiHub: 7 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

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Authors

Publication authors
12
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 12 (8.3%)

Abstract

Abstract Our previous cross‐sectional investigation (Chetcuti et al., 2020) showed that infants with autism traits could be divided into distinct subgroups based on temperament. This longitudinal study builds on this existing work by exploring the continuity of temperament subgroup classifications and their associations with behavioral/clinical phenotypic features from infancy to toddlerhood. 103 infants (68% male) showing early signs of autism were referred to the study by community healthcare professionals and seen for assessments when aged around 12‐months (Time 1), 18‐months (Time 2), and 24‐months (Time 3). Latent profile analysis revealed inhibited/low positive, active/negative reactive, and sociable/well‐regulated subgroups at each timepoint, and a unique reactive/regulated subgroup at Time 3. Cross‐tabulations indicated a significant likelihood of children having a recurrent subgroup classification from one timepoint to the next, and no apparent patterns to the movement of children who did change from one subgroup to another over time. Temperament subgroups were associated with concurrent child social–emotional functioning and autism traits, but unrelated to child age, sex, or developmental level. These findings suggest that temperament subgroup classifications might represent a reliable and very early indicator of autism characteristics and social–emotional functioning among infants/toddlers with autism traits.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 12 Sep 2026 01:04.

Cited references
60
With a DOI
52
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
6
6 / 60 (10.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 60 (3.3%)
References with detected author names
58 / 60 (96.7%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
6
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
365
From DOI or external metadata
365
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
137 / 365 (37.5%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 228 / 365 (62.5%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
7 / 365 (1.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 7 / 137 (5.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 255 (0.4%).
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