Social development in Autistic Adolescents

Social Development in Autistic Adolescents

Research Review: Social development in Autistic Adolescents

Research Review

Introduction

Social competence refers to the skills and strategies that allow individuals to have meaningful friendships; forge close, emotion-based relationships; productively collaborate with groups, teams, and work partners; manage public social settings; and participate in family functioning. Social competence has been repeatedly demonstrated to be a critical variable in predicting success in future life. The present article begins with a summary of research investigating the impact of social dysfunction on the lives of people with AS in adulthood, and then proceeds to a more recent literature following children into adolescence (Sigman & Ruskin, 1999)

Social Competence of Adults with AS

The inability to develop social competence is the leading factor in the failure of most adults with autism to attain even a minimal level of quality in their lives. AS distinguished from autism is a relatively new diagnostic entity. Researchers have had difficulty determining whether the two exceptionalities are separate or fall along the autism spectrum and thus have rarely separated children with AS from those with high-functioning autism (HFA) a population of individuals in the autism spectrum who have developed language and function with average to above-average intelligence. This is especially the case with longer term outcome studies, which by their nature would follow individuals who had not been diagnosed with AS in original assessments. Therefore, with several notable exceptions, this review will focus on outcomes for merged AS and HFA groups. This review is also limited to studies published over the past 15 years, on the assumption that the individuals studied were more likely to have been accurately diagnosed and to have received at least some appropriate intervention services at a younger age (Howlin & Goode, 2000).

More recently, a study conducted under the auspices of the National Autistic Society of Great Britain reported on the adult outcomes of individuals with AS. The authors found that 37% of adults with AS reported no participation at all in social activities, while 50% reported going out no more than one or two times per month. Only 12% were engaged in fulltime employment. Social difficulties in the workplace were reported as the leading cause of job failure.

Social Competence of Adolescents with AS

Recent reports of adolescents with AS and HFA are important because most participants have been diagnosed during the past 10 years, and one can assume that a significant portion of those followed may have had at least some access to modern behavioral, educational, and medical services. Thus, they represent a critical indicator of current progress in intervention. We found three recent studies investigating the social functioning of adolescents with HFA and AS. The first, conducted by Sigman and Ruskin (1999), was a longitudinal investigation of teenagers with HFA who were followed since preschool. Those authors' results clearly documented the enduring lack of progress in social competence of this group. Similarly, Bauminger and Kasari, (2000) found that adolescents with HFA lacked an understanding of the emotional aspects ...