Younger siblings of children with autism (Sibs-ASD) are at heightened risk for the development of clinical and subclinical cognitive and social deficits. Subtle deficits in both social responsiveness and executive functioning may limit children’s ability to engage in cooperative and competent peer interactions in everyday environments. Examining the relations between social responsiveness, executive functioning, and peer competence provides a foundation for understanding the mechanisms underlying social deficits among young children at varying levels of risk for the development of ASDs.
Objectives:
The goals of the current study are: (a) to examine the associations between parent reports of social responsiveness and executive functioning, and observations of children’s social behavior with an unfamiliar peer in a sample of children varying in ASD risk and (b) to test whether executive functions mediate the relation between social responsiveness and social behavior with peers.
Methods:
Preliminary data are presented on 33 4- to 6-year-old children (mean age 5.78 years). Eighteen (12 males) were the younger siblings of children with autism (Sibs-ASD) and 15 (10 males) were the younger siblings of typically-developing children (Sibs-COM). Groups were matched on age, t(31)=-.21, ns and verbal IQ, t(31)= -.05, ns. Parents completed the Social Responsiveness Questionnaire (SRS; Constantino, 2004) and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF; Gioia et al., 2000). Of interest were the SRS Total T-score as an index of social deficits along the autism spectrum and the BRIEF GEC T-score as an index of executive deficits. Each participant was paired with a gender-, IQ- and age-matched typically-developing peer from the community and observed during a peer interaction paradigm. A composite measure of Observed Social Dysregulation was created by summing standardized codes of (a) Negative Affect during a 10-minute free play episode and (b) the Quality of Cooperation (reversed) during a 5-minute cooperative puzzle task.
Results:
Sibling status was unrelated to SRS Total, t(31) = 1.68, p = .10, reflecting the wide range of variability in social responsiveness within each sibling group. A series of regression analyses revealed that: (a) Higher SRS Total scores and BRIEF GEC scores were independently associated with more Observed Social Dysregulation, F(1, 32) = 12.57, p = .001 and F(1, 30) = 7.85, p = .009, respectively and (b) the association between SRS Total scores and Observed Social Dysregulation was partially mediated through the effect of BRIEF GEC scores. That is, the highly significant relation between SRS Total Scores and Observed Social Dysregulation was reduced to non-significance once BRIEF GEC Scores were controlled for.
Conclusions:
Consistent with past literatures with both typically-developing and at-risk young children, social responsiveness and executive functioning deficits were individually associated with behavior and affect dysregulation during peer interaction. Across the combined sample of Sibs-ASD and Sibs-COM, the relation between social responsiveness and maladaptive peer behaviors was partially mediated by differences in general executive abilities. These findings suggest that targeting executive abilities, which are thought to underlie the development of self-regulation, may facilitate more competent peer interactions for children with elevated autism-related social deficits.
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