Project Description:
Purpose: We used a qualitative approach including semi-structured focus groups to identify the social profile of adolescent females with ASD in comparison to their typically developing peers. Focus groups included adolescent females with ASD, typically developing peers, and their parents. Guiding questions targeted activities and interests, self-perceptions, social presentation and self-care in relation to key developmental time points. This work informs research on the presentation of ASD in females and has implications for clinical practice including social-emotional intervention targeting this historically underserved population.
Rationale: Interpersonal skills are a keystone behavior in developing healthy relationships and in successful adjustment, with impairments increasing risks for externalizing and internalizing problems. Social impairment is a core feature in ASD resulting in research and services targeting interpersonal skills and social competence. However, studies primarily include male, school age children as participants. Recent data show a 63% increase in ASD among females from 2002 to 2008, resulting in a marked increase in adolescents and young adult females with ASD today. We need additional information about the biological and behavioral features of ASD in females to determine whether the course of ASD is similar in males and females and if currently used interventions are appropriate for females (Koenig & Tsatsanis, 2005; Rivet & Matson, 2011) and should be generalizable to all individuals with ASD.
Some findings suggest boys are more socially impaired during childhood while girls become more impaired in adolescence (McLennan, Lord, & Schopler, 1993). This increase in social impairment may be related to developmental change and gender differences. Social expectations and norms become more complex during adolescence, including a shift from social interactions that focus on play and turn-taking to a focus on establishing and maintaining relationships, conversation, and navigating social situations without adult support (McLennan, Lord, & Schopler, 1993). Females engage in more conversation and self-disclosure as compared to males (Crombie, 1988) with conversation styles that are relationship based, facilitative, and have a greater emphasis on sharing thoughts and emotions (Hannah & Murachver, 1999). The nature and complexity of female social relationships during adolescence along with social impairment as a core feature in ASDs results in adolescent girls with ASD as an extremely vulnerable population. Although increased risk of internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression is true of all adolescence, adolescent girls with ASD exhibit significantly more internalizing symptoms compared to typically developing girls and to boys with ASD. Still, this vulnerable population remains understudied and underrepresented in the ASD literature, with no published intervention studies to date specifically targeting girls with ASD.
Findings and Implications: Preliminary findings from focus groups with parents of females with ASD suggest a dichotomy on variables within the social profile. Examples include dichotomies on desires for friendships and insight about friendships. Emerging themes from focus groups with females with ASD suggest limited friendships and perceived benefit of social activities related to activity preference or interests with less value on the interactions or social relationship. We will present a model of the social profile based on data from all focus groups, including typically developing peers and their parents. Research on the presentation of ASD in females is critical for future studies of identification, identifying critical developmental time points, and in developing and studying interventions appropriate for this population. This data will also inform our existing social skills curriculum and provide social validity for targets within our program.
Target Audience:
Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN
