18582
Understanding the Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Bullying Against Others in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Bullying is an epidemic that affects over five million adolescents in the U.S., often resulting in negative outcomes for perpetrators and victims (Fried & Sosland, 2009). Bullying includes negative behaviors toward others, which can include physical, verbal, or social aggression (Fried & Sosland, 2009). Research suggests that social anxiety may be related to bullying behaviors. Fear of negative evaluation, a subcategory of social anxiety, focuses on concerns that adolescents will not be accepted, that their peers will mock them, or that they will embarrass themselves (La Greca, 1998). Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to frequently experience social anxiety (Wood et al., 2014) and are often involved in the bullying dynamic (Sterzing et al., 2012), yet the degree to which social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation influence bullying toward others has yet to be explored.
Objectives:
This study examined the relationship between social anxiety and bullying behaviors in adolescents with ASD. Understanding the relationship between social anxiety and bullying behaviors in adolescents with ASD is expected to provide useful clinical information, possibly leading to more targeted treatments.
Methods:
Participants included 175 adolescents (131 males; 44 females) from 11-18 years of age (M=13.9, SD=1.9) and their parents who presented for treatment through the UCLA PEERS Clinic, which is an evidence-based social skills intervention for adolescents with ASD without intellectual disabilities. Adolescent participants had a previous diagnosis of ASD, which was confirmed by a Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS; Constantino, 2005) Total Score at or above 65. To assess adolescent social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, parents completed the Social Anxiety Scale (SAS; La Greca, 1998) prior to treatment. The SAS includes a total score of adolescent social anxiety and three subscales: fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and distress specific to new situations, and generalized social avoidance and distress. To assess adolescent instances of bullying others, parents completed the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS; Gresham & Elliot, 2008) prior to intervention. The SSIS includes standard scores of adolescent social skills and problem behaviors, which includes a bullying subscale. Pearson correlations were calculated to examine the relationship between adolescent social anxiety on the SAS and reports of bullying others on the SSIS prior to treatment.
Results:
Results suggest that adolescents with higher parent-reported total anxiety on the SAS demonstrate significantly higher instances of bullying others as reported by parents on the SSIS (p<.05). Results further indicate that adolescents with higher parent-reported fear of negative evaluation by peers on the SAS exhibit significantly higher parent-reported instances of bullying others (p<.01) on the SSIS.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that adolescents with ASD that exhibit greater social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation by others are more likely to be the perpetrators of bullying against their peers, possibly leading to greater rejection by their peer group. Identifying factors that may lead to increased bullying behavior, and ultimately peer rejection, will enable us to develop more targeted interventions to decrease maladaptive social behavior and peer rejection in a highly vulnerable population.