Examining shared and unique aspects of Social Anxiety Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder using factor analysis.
Low social motivation is the main engine of anxiety and skill gaps in adults with ASD—measure it first, treat it fast.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Noordenbos et al. (2012) looked at the adults with autism. They gave them long surveys about social fears, skills, and thinking.
The team used factor math to see which parts of social life travel together. They wanted to know if anxiety, skills, and thinking form one blob or separate blobs.
What they found
Social motivation stood alone. It linked to anxiety and daily skills, but not to thinking tests.
In plain words: wanting to be with people drives both worry and real-life success in adults with ASD.
How this fits with other research
Fahmie et al. (2013) built on this. They gave the same adult group a 9-week mindfulness course. Anxiety dropped, showing the social-motivation link can be treated.
Callanan et al. (2021) seems to disagree. In college students with autistic traits, self-compassion—not social motivation—predicted anxiety. The clash is age: young adults may use different shields against worry.
Pahnke et al. (2014) stretched the idea younger. A 6-week ACT group helped high-school teens with ASD feel less stress, hinting that social-emotional training works across ages.
Why it matters
Screen social motivation first. If an adult client shows low drive to connect, target that domain to trim anxiety and boost skills. Try quick motivation builders—shared interest games or peer mentors—before diving into thought-challenging work.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
UNLABELLED: There is increasing recognition that adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) would benefit from treatment to improve social functioning, a key factor in adults' overall quality of life. However, the various behavioral components of social functioning (i.e., categories of behaviors underlying social functioning), including social motivation, social anxiety, social cognition, and social skills, have not all been assessed together in any sample of adults with ASD, making it difficult to know the relative levels of impairment in these various categories, the relationships among these categories, or promising targets for treatments. We hypothesized there would be significant correlations among measures within the same category, but fewer correlations of measures between categories, indicating the heterogeneity of impairments in adults with ASD. Twenty-nine adults with ASD without co-occurring intellectual disability completed multiple assessments measuring social motivation, social anxiety, social cognition, and social skills, as well as measures of overall ASD symptom levels and community functioning. Results revealed significant positive correlations among measures within most categories; positive correlations between measures of social motivation and all other categories, except for social cognition; as well as positive cross-domain correlations between measures of anxiety and ASD phenotype; measures of social skills and community functioning; and measures of social skills and ASD phenotype. Further studies are warranted to determine causal relationships among these behavioral categories, across developmental stages. However, the lack of correlations between many categories suggests the potential importance of multidimensional treatments that target the particular components of social functioning most in need of improvement in individuals. Autism Res 2018, 11: 488-502. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: The goal of this study was to measure behaviors that contribute to social functioning difficulties in adults with ASD, with the ultimate goal of guiding treatment development. We found that motivation to interact with others was significantly related to social anxiety and social skill. Our results suggest that motivation may be important to target in treatment, and that treatments should be tailored to the areas most in need of improvement in each individual.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2012 · doi:10.1007/s10803-011-1325-7