Autism 1–11 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1362361315615467 aut.sagepub.com Successful compliance with the demands of socialization agents is an important developmental milestone in the attainment of self-regulation (Feldman and Klein, 2003; Stifter et al., 1999), which is associated with better social adaptation, moral internalization, and empathic abilities across childhood and up to adolescence (Barry and Kochanska, 2010; Feldman, 2007). Compliance is charac- terized by the ability to resist tempting impulses, control frustration, delay gratification, and complete a requested action (Kochanska, 1993). The development of the child’s ability to comply with parental demands and resist tempta- tion is shaped by the nature of parent–child relationship across the first year of life (Feldman et al., 1999; Kopp, 1982) and the development of inhibitory capacities during the second year of life, pinpointing the child’s third year of life as a hallmark in the attainment of self-control. Two forms of child compliance have been described in the lit- erature, which distinguish between two motivational sys- tems underlying child compliance: The first, self-regulated compliance, describes an internally motivated embrace of the parental rules that marks the emergence of self-regula- tion; the second, externally monitored compliance, refers to parent-monitored compliance with little indication of internalization. Unlike externally monitored compliance, self-regulated compliance is a form of early internaliza- tion, which is associated with children’s early conscience development (Feldman and Klein, 2003; Kochanska and Aksan, 2006). The two forms of compliance were shown to be stable over time, having distinctly different develop- mental trajectories (Kochanska and Aksan, 1995). Only Self-regulated compliance in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder: The role of temperament and parental disciplinary style Sharon Ostfeld-Etzion 1 , Ruth Feldman 1,2 , Yael Hirschler-Guttenberg 1 , Nathaniel Laor 3,4 and Ofer Golan 1,3 Abstract Regulatory difficulties are common in children with autism spectrum disorder. This study focused on an important aspect of self-regulation—the ability to willingly comply with frustrating demands of socialization agents, termed “self- regulated compliance.” We studied compliance to parental demands in 40 preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder and 40 matched typically developing preschoolers, during separate interactions with mother and father, while engaging in two paradigms: toy pick-up and delayed gratification, which tap the “do” and “don’t” aspects of self-regulated socialization at this age. Parents’ disciplinary style was micro-coded from the two paradigms and child temperament was parent reported. Compared to their typically developing peers, children with autism spectrum disorder showed more noncompliance and less self-regulated compliance to parental demands and prohibitions and greater temperamental difficulties across several domains. No group differences were found in parental disciplinary style. Child self-regulated compliance was associated with parental supportive disciplinary style and with child attention focusing. Findings highlight the importance of parental supportive presence in structuring the development of socialization in children with autism spectrum disorder. Implications for parent–child emotion regulation interventions are discussed. Keywords autism spectrum disorder, compliance, parenting, temperament 1 Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel 2 Gonda Brain Sciences Center, Bar-Ilan University, Israel 3 Association for Children at Risk, Israel 4 Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel Corresponding author: Ofer Golan, Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel. Email: ofer.golan@biu.ac.il 615467AUT 0 0 10.1177/1362361315615467AutismOstfeld-Etzion et al. research-article 2015 Original Article by guest on December 19, 2015 aut.sagepub.com Downloaded from