Empathy, social relationship and co-occurrence in young adults with DCD

•Individuals with DCD have a good level of empathy; it’s the presence of ADHD and/or ASD that reduces empathy level.•Adolescents with DCD have problems in social relationships.•Social difficulties in adolescents with DCD may be driven by external environmental factors.•DCD has a high co-occurrence with ADHD and ASD; each combination carries a unique empathy and social relationship profile. Empathy is defined as an emotional or cognitive response to another’s emotional state. It is considered essential for navigating meaningful social interactions and is closely linked to prosocial behavior. Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is characterized by an impairment of motor coordination that has a marked impact on both academic and day-to-day living activities. Children and adolescents with DCD have been shown to have less developed social support and friendships. The research linking empathy and DCD is scarce. The aims of this study are to gain an understanding of the relationship between DCD and empathy in young adults with DCD only, and with DCD coupled with other neurodevelopmental disorders, in comparison with typically developing adults. The study included 212 young adults aged 18–40 years. The subjects in this study were from mainstream populations in the UK. The study groups included: (a) “DCD only” with 42 individuals; (b) “DCD + ASD” with 21 individuals; (c) “DCD + ADHD” with 45 individuals; (d) “DCD + ASD + ADHD” with 29 individuals; and (e) the control group of 75 individuals. ANOVA on the Empathy Questionnaire (EQ) showed a statistically significant difference between groups (F [4,257] = 35.63; p