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

Abstract

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.

Research Review: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of sex/gender differences in social interaction and communication in autistic and nonautistic children and adolescents

“…Diagnoses were confirmed in the majority ( n = 13) of studies, usually via clinical assessment and/or ADOS assessment ( N = 11) . N = 9 studies used questionnaire data (Baron‐Cohen & Wheelwright, 2003; Dean et al, 2014; Harrop, Green, & Hudry, 2017; Head et al, 2014; Horiuchi et al, 2014; Knickmeyer, Wheelwright, & Baron‐Cohen, 2007; Sedgewick, Hill, & Pellicano, 2018; Sedgewick, Hill, Yates, Pickering, & Pellicano, 2016; Sedgewick, Leppanen, & Tchanturia, 2019). Further studies used a range of different behavioural measures/tasks, including use of eye‐tracking to measure social attention (Chawarska, Macari, Powell, Dinicola, & Shic, 2016; Harrop et al, 2018) and a novel drawing task to measure social reciprocity (van Ommeren et al, 2017).…”

“…Measurements across 10 studies corresponded to the DSM‐5 subdomain of developing, maintaining and understanding relationships (Baron‐Cohen & Wheelwright, 2003; Dean et al, 2014, 2016; Harrop et al, 2017; Head et al, 2014; Horiuchi et al, 2014; Knickmeyer et al, 2007; Sedgewick et al, 2016, 2018, 2019), four to nonverbal communicative behaviour (Chawarska et al, 2016; Harrop et al, 2018; O’Connor, Stockmann, & Rieffe, 2019; Parish‐Morris et al, 2017) and two to social‐emotional reciprocity (Cheng, Kato, & Tseng, 2017; van Ommeren et al, 2017).…”

“…[Correction made on 13 November 2020, after first online publication: There was an alignment error in Dean et al, 2014Dean et al, , 2016Harrop et al, 2017;Head et al, 2014;Horiuchi et al, 2014;Knickmeyer et al, 2007;Sedgewick et al, 2016Sedgewick et al, , 2018Sedgewick et al, , 2019, four to nonverbal communicative behaviour (Chawarska et al, 2016;Harrop et al, 2018;O'Connor, Stockmann, & Rieffe, 2019;Parish-Morris et al, 2017) and two to social-emotional reciprocity (Cheng, Kato, & Tseng, 2017;van Ommeren et al, 2017).…”

Health-related risky behaviors in Chinese adolescents with autism: a cross-sectional study

“…There was no significant difference in the RB factor between autistic adolescents and neurotypical adolescents. The reason might be that although autistic adolescents have a risk of aggression, the impairment of social interaction and communication may disable them in finding more friends [ 65 , 66 ]. Thus, they scarcely gather with others to commit illegal crimes.…”

Examining the Differences in Autism Quotient Scoresbased on Ethnicity

“…Currently, little is known about the effect of demographics on the symptoms of ASD and this i m p e d e s v i t a l g e n e r a l i z a b l e a s s e r t i o n s o n symptomatology and epidemiology of autism spectrum disorder. Significant research has been conducted on the influence of assorted demographic factors on ASD (Baron-cohen et al, 2006;Frazier et al, 2014;Rosenberg et al, 2018;Sedgewick, Leppanen, & Tchanturia, 2019;Tillmann et al, 2018;Woodbury-Smith et al, 2005). Although previous studies investigated the influence of ethnicity on ASD (Keen, Reid and Arnone, 2010;Dealberto, 2011;Zaroff and Uhm, 2012;Becerra et al, 2014;Pierce et al, 2014;Harrison et al, 2017;Yingling, Hock and Bell, 2018;Abdullahi et al, 2019;Nevison and Zahorodny, 2019;Yingling, Bell and Hock, 2019); there is less evidence on the differences in the symptoms of ASD between ethnicities from a large dataset of children, adolescents and adults.…”