Accounting for Social Skills Deficits in Adolescents with ASD, Intellectual Disability, and Typical Development

Background: Poor social skills in adolescence may lead to a range of problems including delinquency, poor academic performance, and mental health problems.  While social deficits are known to be significantly impairing for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Intellectual Disabilities (ID), no known research has yet to compare differences in social functioning among these groups and adolescents with typical development (TD). 

Objectives: The first objective of this study is to compare the social skills of early adolescents with ASD, ID, and TD.  The second objective of this study is to compare predictors of social skills across symptom groups.  Possible predictors include inattention, externalizing behavior, and anxiety.

Methods: Parent ratings of social behavior from the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990) were compared across symptom groups for adolescents with ASD (n=46), ID (n=41) and TD (n=90). Data were analyzed from UCLA’s Collaborative Family Study, a longitudinal study of children with and without intellectual disability and their families, and the UCLA PEERS Program, an evidence-based social skills intervention for adolescents.  Predictors of social functioning (anxiety, externalizing behavior, and inattention) were also examined.

Results: Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVAs.  Results demonstrate several significant differences between groups in overall social functioning on the SSRS and its subscales.  In general, adolescents with ID and TD tend to score higher on social functioning than adolescents with ASD.  Adolescents with TD had higher overall social functioning and higher levels of assertion, responsibility, and self-control as compared to adolescents with ASD and ID (p<.001).  In the area of problem behaviors, however, both adolescents with ID and TD were reported to have significantly fewer problems than adolescents with ASD (p<.001).  The subscales of cooperation, internalizing, and externalizing also showed a trend for higher functioning among adolescents with ID and TD as compared to adolescents with ASD.  Analyses of the predictor variables suggest significant differences between the groups in inattention, externalizing behavior and anxiety (p<.01). Higher inattention, externalizing behavior, and anxiety predict lower social functioning across symptom groups.  However, anxiety does not predict social functioning over and above diagnosis.  Externalizing behavior and inattention continue to predict social functioning over and above diagnosis (p<.05).

Conclusions: Results suggest that adolescents with TD exhibit better social functioning overall than adolescents with ASD and ID.  However, when behavior problems are considered, the TD and ID groups are functioning better than adolescents with ASD.  This suggests a possible behavioral regulation deficit in adolescents with ASD that may have a lesser effect for adolescents with ID. Further commonalities and differences across disabilities will be discussed. Recommendations for how these findings might inform future interventions will be highlighted.