Social anxiety mediates the effect of autism spectrum disorder characteristics on hostility in young adults.
Social anxiety partly explains why ASD traits predict hostility in young adults—treat anxiety to chip away at aggression risk.
01Research in Context
What this study did
White et al. (2012) asked college students to fill out three online surveys. The surveys measured autism traits, social anxiety, and self-reported hostility.
The team then used statistics to test whether social anxiety explains why autism traits and hostility are linked.
What they found
Social anxiety only partly explained the link. Autism traits still predicted some hostility after anxiety was accounted for.
In plain words, social anxiety is one reason young adults with more ASD features feel more hostile, but not the only reason.
How this fits with other research
Burrows et al. (2018) looked at younger verbally-fluent kids with ASD and also found high social anxiety. They added parent-youth agreement data and showed that when parent and child answers line up, the child has milder autism traits and better daily skills.
Ohan et al. (2015) used the same university-student sample and found that ASD traits predict mood problems more strongly in females than males. This extends the target paper by showing the trait-to-distress pathway differs by gender.
Yen-Wong et al. (2024) used a youth sample and found different mediators—social-communication deficits and attention problems—between ASD traits and poor peer relationships. No contradiction: the 2024 study looked at peer problems, not hostility, and used kids instead of young adults.
Why it matters
Screen for social anxiety in your college-age or adult clients who show ASD traits and irritability. Treating anxiety may lower hostility, but you will likely need extra strategies for the remaining risk. Also watch for gender effects: females with subtle ASD traits may show more mood issues than males. Finally, remember that in younger clients peer struggles may stem from communication or attention gaps rather than anxiety—match your intervention to the mediator you see.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Problems with social anxiety are frequently reported in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It is possible that social anxiety, when present, exacerbates the experience of hostility and other forms of aggression in relation to ASD symptoms. This study sought to determine if social anxiety symptoms mediate the relationship between features of ASD and feelings of hostility in young adults. Self-report measures of social anxiety, ASD, and facets of aggression were collected in a non-clinical sample (n = 618) of college students. Social anxiety was found to partially mediate the relationship between ASD features and self-reported hostility. There was also evidence for inconsistent mediation, such that social anxiety dampened the strength of the relationship between ASD symptoms and verbal and physical aggression. Findings highlight the potential influence of associated psychiatric symptoms in people with ASD. In addition, dimensional conceptualization of ASD symptoms, as opposed to a categorical approach solely, may be a useful approach to studying complex personality processes.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2012 · doi:10.1177/1362361311431951