Definition of “Kawaii” in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Focusing on the subject’s attributes, cognitions, emotions and behaviors, and functions

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  • 自閉スペクトラム症者における“かわいい”の定義：対象の属性，認知，感情および行動，機能に着目して
  • ジヘイスペクトラムショウシャ ニ オケル"カワイイ"ノ テイギ : タイショウ ノ ゾクセイ,ニンチ,カンジョウ オヨビ コウドウ,キノウ ニ チャクモク シテ

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In this study, we conducted a qualitative research on the definition of “Kawaii （cute in English）” among individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder （ASD）, focusing on subject attributes, cognition, emotion, and behavior and function. The participants were 15 individuals with ASD aged 13-23 years （final analysis: 13, mean age 16.6, SD=3.62） and 30 individuals with typical development （TD） aged 14-23 years （mean age 18.1, SD=3.21）. The participants were interviewed about “Kawaii”. All 727 responses （264 ASD, 463 TD） were classified using the KJ method （Kawakita, 1967）. As a result, we obtained the following definition of “Kawaii” for individuals with ASD: It is caused by seeing, touching, hearing, and wearing. It is accompanied by motivations for approach, such as wanting to be close to it, wanting to keep it close, and wanting to look at it closely, as well as emotions such as feeling at ease and liking it. It has the functions of emotion regulation, motivation, improvement of mental health, and communication facilitation. As unique to ASD, “functions to improve mental health and promote communication” was obtained.

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