Autistic Girls but Not Boys Show a Strong Association Between Internalizing Symptoms and Social Motivation.
The MSCS gives BCBAs a parent-rated tool to profile seven distinct social competence domains in high-functioning autistic adolescents.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Waite et al. (2025) built a new parent form called the MSCS. It tracks seven social skills in autistic teens.
Parents answered questions. The team ran a confirmatory factor analysis to see if the seven parts held up.
What they found
The seven-factor model fit well. Each factor showed good reliability and validity.
Parents could clearly rate separate skills like conversation, friendship, and reading social cues.
How this fits with other research
Albert et al. (2024) also used CFA on the ADOS-2. They found a bifactor model worked best for clinician ratings. The MSCS now shows parent ratings break into seven clean factors, not one general trait.
Norris et al. (2012) tested ADOS factor models and saw no clear winner. The MSCS gives a clearer picture because it was built for parents and teens from day one.
Mandell (1984) warned that parent forms for disabled children can clump “compliance” and “relationship” into one blob. Waite et al. (2025) avoided that by writing items that keep the seven domains apart.
Why it matters
You now have a short parent scale that splits social competence into seven slices. Use it to pick exact targets for intervention and show parents where growth happens. Swap it in during reassessment to track small gains that global scores miss.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism and its related disorders are commonly described as lying along a continuum that ranges in severity and are collectively referred to as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Although all individuals with ASD meet the social impairment diagnostic criteria outlined in the DSM-IV-TR, they do not present with the same social difficulties. The variability in the expression and severity of social competence is particularly evident among the group of individuals with "high-functioning" ASD who appear to have difficulty applying their average to above average intelligence in a social context. There is a striking paucity of empirical research investigating individual differences in social functioning among individuals with high-functioning ASD. It is possible that more detailed investigations of social competence have been impeded by the lack of standardized measures available to assess the nature and severity of social impairment. The aim of the current study was to develop and evaluate a parent rating scale capable of assessing individual differences in social competence (i.e. strengths and challenges) among adolescents with ASD: the Multidimensional Social Competence Scale (MSCS). Results from confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesized multidimensional factor structure of the MSCS. Seven relatively distinct domains of social competence were identified including social motivation, social inferencing, demonstrating empathic concern, social knowledge, verbal conversation skills, nonverbal sending skills, and emotion regulation. Psychometric evidence provided preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the scale. Possible applications of this promising new parent rating scale in both research and clinical settings are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1002/aur.1331