A systematic review of how emotional self-awareness is defined and measured when comparing autistic and non-autistic groups

•Emotional self-awareness is usually measured with self-report in autism research.•Emotional self-awareness is not consistently defined in the autism literature.•No single definition of emotional self-awareness is used consistently across studies.•Few behavioural measures have been validated in autistic populations.•Current findings on emotional self-awareness in autism may be biased.