Establishing Social Inclusion the Autism Way: Denying the “They Don’t Want Friends” Myth

Bennett, Matthew; Webster, Amanda; Goodall, Emma; Rowland, Susannah

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-3359-0_9

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…There is, however, no reduction in the value of the close relationships autistic adults have simply because they may have fewer of them, and researchers should be looking at whether autistic people are satisfied with the friendships they have rather than assuming that they are lesser because they do not always fit a non-autistic model. While currently there are no autism-specific friendship measures, we would argue that findings using the FQ are paired with qualitative work asking participants for greater insight into their experiences in future work, so as to avoid reinforcing the often-seen bias that autistic people do not want, or have, friendships [6]. The future development of an autism-specific friendship measure should be developed in partnership with a range of autistic people, in order to best reflect their experiences and priorities in friendship research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a common perception that some autistic children, young people, and adults do not want to have friends [6] as difficulties in the social realm are diagnostic criterion for autism [7]. Some research has found that autistic children have fewer friendships [8], are more lonely [9], and are more socially excluded than both non-autistic peers and peers with other developmental conditions [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recent research, however, has suggested that many autistic children, young people, and adults desire, have, and maintain successful friendships and romantic relationships [6, 18–20]. While there are still challenges in friendships for autistic people, making friends who accept and normalise their autism was crucial [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Friendship Questionnaire, autism, and gender differences: a study revisited

2019

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BackgroundThe Friendship Questionnaire (FQ) is a widely used measure of friendships in autism research and beyond. This study sought to revisit the original paper where the measure was presented, using a larger sample of both autistic and non-autistic participants to examine gender differences in scoring. It also sought to expand upon the original paper by comparing FQ results to those of the Unidimensional Relationship Closeness Scale (URCS), to examine whether there are differences in how autistic people report on their general friendships in contrast to their most significant relationships.MethodsParticipants were recruited for an online study, and 949 people (532 autistic, 417 non-autistic) aged between 18 and 81 took part. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Autism Quotient-28, the Friendship Questionnaire, and the Unidimensional Relationship Closeness Scale.ResultsWe used robust regressions and Pearson’s correlational analyses, conducted in R. Autistic people scored lower than non-autistic people on the FQ, and similar gender differences in the pattern of FQ scores were seen in both groups. There was a significant negative correlation between AQ and FQ scores in both groups. On the URCS, we took the data from those who rated specific close relationships and found that autistic people scored this relationship more highly than non-autistic adults did. There was a significant negative correlation between AQ and URCS scores in both groups. Also, in both groups, there was a significant positive correlation between FQ and URCS scores.LimitationsThe data is entirely self-report, and diagnoses could not be verified with a clinician, although AQ scores support self-identification as autistic. Also, the groups were not evenly matched on age and other demographic variables, although this was controlled for in analyses. It is also the case that more autistic than non-autistic people were unable to specify a close relationship to score on the URCS, meaning that a certain set of experiences are not represented in this data.ConclusionsWe conclude that our data replicates the core finding of the original FQ paper that autistic people score lower on the FQ. In contrast to that paper, however, we found that there were gender differences among the autistic population. Also, our inclusion of the URCS suggests that the intimate romantic relationships and best-friendships of autistic people can be of similar quality to those of non-autistic people, suggesting that there may be important differences in autistic people’s relations with friends in general versus close friends and romantic partners.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Friendship Questionnaire, autism, and gender differences: a study revisited

2019

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“…There was no significant difference in the RB score between autistic adolescents and neurotypical adolescents. The reason might be that because of the impairment of social interaction and communication ability, they rarely gather with others to commit illegal crimes together[ 44 , 45 ]. In addition, stereotypical features may make autistic adolescents follow rules more strictly, which will reduce the occurrence of RB behaviors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health-related risky behaviors and their risk factors in adolescents with high-functioning autism

Sun¹,

Xu²,

Ma³

et al. 2021

WJCC

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BACKGROUND Health-related risky behaviors generally refer to behaviors that have a negative impact on health and quality of life. Health-related risky behaviors in adolescents with high-functioning autism (HFA) have not been well understood so far. Adolescents with HFA may have more health-related risky behaviors than neurotypical adolescents. AIM To investigate health-related risky behaviors and their risk factors with HFA. METHODS This is an observational study. Our study enrolled 110 adolescents aged 12-19-years-old meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4 th edition criteria for HFA. They were recruited from Peking University Sixth Hospital. There were also 110 age, sex and nationality matched controls enrolled who came from a public school in Beijing, China. Both groups completed the Adolescents Health-related Risky Behavior Inventory. Nonparametric tests were carried out for comparison of the Adolescents Health-related Risky Behavior Inventory scores between the two groups. Expression recognition, the Inventory of Subjective Life Quality for Child and Adolescent, Chinese Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Adult-Chinese Revised, Theory of Mind test and Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire were assessed in the autism group to explore factors associated with health-related risky behaviors. Multivariate regression analysis was conducted to explore the risk factors of health-related risky behaviors in the HFA group. RESULTS The results showed that the total score of the Adolescents Health-related Risky Behavior Inventory and scores of “aggression and violence,” “suicide and self-injury,” “health compromising behavior” and “unprotected sex” subscales in the HFA group were significantly higher than those in the control group (Z range -4.197 to -2.213, P < 0.05). Among the associated factors, poor emotional experience (B = -0.268, P < 0.001), depression (B = -0.321, P < 0.001), low score of intelligence (B = -0.032, P = 0.042), low score of Theory of Mind test (B = -1.321, P = 0.003) and poor adaptation to school life (B = -0.152, P = 0.006) were risk factors. These risky behaviors may promote the occurrence of health-related risky behaviors in adolescents with HFA. CONCLUSION This study showed that adolescents with HFA were more likely to be involved in health-related risky behaviors. Different health-related risky behaviors have different reasons.

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“…Although high school students with autism may experience difficulties in social situations given the social features associated with a diagnosis of autism, they too will often express the desire to connect with peers and participate in group activities (Bennett et al, 2018). However, due to a more nuanced social system and increased social expectations in high school, neurotypical peers may not include their autistic classmates in social activities due to perceived social and communication differences (Cresswell et al, 2019).…”

Section: Barriers and Facilitators Of Social Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%