girl at window
© Getty ImagesWhile autism affects social skills, females are naturally more intuitive about emotions, Dutch researchers found.

Female autism sufferers are better at overcoming their difficulties with social skills, a new study reveals.

The research carried out at Holland's Leiden University has been hailed as a significant step in understanding both autism and gender.

Autism is a severe developmental disorder that impacts the nervous system, affecting sufferers' emotional skills. It means autistic people can often come across as unsympathetic or unempathic.

However, the study of 68 teenagers found girls were far more likely than boys to react to other people with empathy.

It is a landmark step in developing more research on girls with autism, since most data focuses on males.

The researchers analysed the behaviour of 68 teenagers, girls and boys, both with and without autism.

As part of the test, the researcher pretended to have caught her finger in the ringbinder of a file, and exclaimed: 'Ow, that hurt,' while shaking her hand in pain.

Two fellow researchers looked at the video afterwards to assess how empathically the participants had reacted.

Girls, whether or not they suffer from autism, reacted with more empathy than boys.

Lead author Professor Carolien Riefe said: 'We didn't find any differences between the participants with or without autism. But we did see a qualitative difference between girls and boys.

'The girls more often responded to the emotion of the person conducting the test with questions such as: 'Are you OK?' The boys, on the other hand, looked for a solution to the problem: 'If you do it like this, you won't trap your finger.'

Rieffe adds that neither boys nor girls have difficulty empathizing with the emotions of another person.

However, the ability to understand why the person feels as they do is often lacking in both girls and boys with autism.

This is why it is more difficult for young autism sufferers to react with empathy to such situations as love problems or conflict situations with parents or peers, all of which are topics that young people spend a lot of their time talking about.

According to Rieffe and her co-authors, girls with autism have the big advantage that they have a good understanding of many of the social rules.

Nonetheless, their care providers should not be misled by this, because it does not necessarily indicate a strong capacity for empathy or the skills to actually be able to form good social relations and friendships.

Rieffe added that it is important when treating girls with autism to look at what their specific needs are. This may call for a different approach and strategy than for boys with autism.