Perceptions of social and work functioning are related to social anxiety and executive function in autistic adults.
Autistic adults who say they are anxious or forgetful also say they do poorly at work and with friends.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Woolard et al. (2021) asked 62 autistic adults to fill out four short surveys. The questions covered social anxiety, executive-function skills, and how well they think they do at work and in social life.
The team then looked for patterns. They wanted to know if people who rate their anxiety or EF skills lower also rate their daily functioning lower.
What they found
Adults who said they had more social anxiety also said their work and social lives were harder. The same link showed up for self-reported executive-function problems.
In plain words: when autistic adults feel anxious or forgetful, they also feel they are doing poorly on the job and with friends.
How this fits with other research
Gillespie-Lynch et al. (2019) pooled 133 studies and found that EF and social skills correlate only weakly in autism. Alix used the same EF-social link but shows the link feels strong to the person living it.
McGonigle et al. (2014) saw the same EF-anxiety tie in autistic teens. Alix extends that pattern into adulthood, showing the link lasts across the lifespan.
Shyu et al. (2026) found that social anxiety and low perceived social skill predict poor quality of life in autistic adolescents. Alix mirrors this in adults, replacing "quality of life" with "work and social functioning." The story stays the same: how you feel about your anxiety and skills shapes how you feel about your life.
Why it matters
You may test EF with puzzles and see small effects, yet your client’s day-to-day success can still feel ruled by anxiety and self-perceived executive problems. Targeting social anxiety and building EF self-confidence—through CBT, mindfulness, or metacognitive strategy training—may lift their view of work and friendships even if test scores barely budge. Start by asking, "How often do you feel anxious or forgetful at work?" Their answer predicts their own rating of success better than any lab task.
Get CEUs on This Topic — Free
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Add two quick questions to your intake: "How anxious do you feel at work?" and "How often do daily tasks feel hard to organize?" Use the answers to flag clients who may need anxiety or EF self-management support before job coaching begins.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Many autistic adults have trouble in social situations and at work. Researchers do not know exactly why autistic people might find it difficult in these environments, and no studies to date have looked the way anxiety or other cognitive processes might affect autistic peoples' ability to socialise and succeed in getting and keeping jobs. Anxiety (how much you worry) and difficulty with getting stuff done or switching attention (known as executive function) can be concerns for autistic people and may contribute to social and work difficulties. This study looked at the relationships between the way autistic people perceived their anxiety and executive functioning and their ability to socialise and work. Sixty-two autistic participants completed questionnaires related to their ability to socialise and work, their social anxiety and their executive function. We found that participants who thought that they had poorer ability to work also found themselves to have more difficulties with executive function and they were more socially anxious. Our results showed that how autistic participants perceived their social anxiety and executive function were important in their perception of their social skills and work ability. This study supports the idea that anxiety and executive function could be targeted in interventions to support autistic people and their social and work outcomes.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/13623613211013664