Friendship characteristics and activity patterns of adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder.
Teens with autism count more friends than parents think, and they pick gender-typical activities.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The researchers asked teens with autism about their friends. They also asked the parents the same questions. Then they compared the two sets of answers.
The survey looked at how many friends the teens said they had and what they liked to do together. The team also checked if boys and girls picked different activities.
What they found
Teens with autism reported more friends than their parents knew about. The teens also showed clear gender patterns. Boys liked gaming and sports. Girls liked chatting and shopping.
How this fits with other research
Bauminger et al. (2003) asked moms of younger children with autism. Those moms saw few, short playdates that mostly happened at home. The new study shows that when you ask the teens themselves, the picture looks larger.
Petrina et al. (2016) found that kids with autism and their friends often disagree on how good the friendship is. This warns us to check both sides before we assume a bond is mutual.
Reyes et al. (2019) later showed that joining clubs or sports teams links to having more friends. Cashon et al. (2013) give the teen view of which activities to pick: follow gender preferences for better buy-in.
Why it matters
If you only ask parents, you may miss friends your teen client already has. Ask the teen directly. Use that list to set up peer practice that feels natural. When you plan social groups, offer gaming tables for boys and chat corners for girls. Small tweaks like these raise the odds that teens will show up and stay.
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Start your next teen session by asking the client to name their friends, then shape the activity menu around their stated interests.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study compared perceptions of adolescents' friendships between adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents, examined factors associated with friendship qualities, and investigated the adolescents' reports on the activities they did with friends and how activity patterns differed by gender. Ninety-one adolescents with an ASD and their parents completed mail-based surveys during the summer months. Adolescents with an ASD identified more friends than did their parents, but they agreed on the friends' characteristics. About half of the adolescents spent an average of 4 hours per day with friends during the summer months. Male adolescents with an ASD most frequently played video games with friends, whereas females most frequently had conversations with friends. The findings suggest that adolescents with an ASD and their parents identify different peers as the adolescent's friends. The findings also reveal similarities and differences in friendships between adolescents with an ASD and typically developing adolescents.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2013 · doi:10.1177/1362361311416380