The association between social cognition and executive functioning and symptoms of anxiety and depression in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.
Weaker executive function, not social cognition, predicts higher anxiety in autistic teens.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked: do social-thinking skills or everyday planning skills predict anxiety and depression in autistic teens?
They gave standard questionnaires to adolescents with autism. No teaching or treatment was tested.
What they found
Teens who scored lower on executive-function tasks reported more anxiety. Social-cognition scores showed no link to anxiety or depression.
In plain words: messy planners felt more worry, but reading faces did not matter.
How this fits with other research
Gillespie-Lynch et al. (2019) pooled 133 studies and also found executive function ties to social life, but the links were small. Their wide view supports the teen finding while warning us not to over-rate the size of the effect.
Woolard et al. (2021) later saw the same pattern in autistic adults: weaker executive function went hand-in-hand with higher social anxiety. The link holds after high school.
Shyu et al. (2026) looked at the same age group and showed social anxiety itself harms quality of life. Put together, the papers say: poor EF boosts anxiety, and that anxiety then drags down well-being.
Pellicano (2013) tracked younger kids for three years and found early executive-function scores predicted later social and repetitive behaviors. The new teen data fit that longer arc: EF keeps showing real-world pay-offs.
Why it matters
When you see rising anxiety in an autistic teen, check executive skills first. Can they plan homework, shift between tasks, keep items organized? Teaching planners, visual schedules, or stop-think routines may lower anxiety more than social-skills drills. Start small: give one clear checklist for the day and watch worry levels.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
While high levels of anxiety and depression are now recognized as major co-occurring problems in children and young people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research examining possible associations with individual differences in neurocognitive functioning has been limited. This study included 90 adolescents with an ASD aged 14-16 years with a full-scale IQ > 50. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the independent relationships between multiple measures of executive functioning and social cognition on severity of anxiety or depressive symptoms. Results indicated a significant association between poorer executive functioning and higher levels of anxiety, but not depression. In contrast, social cognition ability was not associated with either anxiety or depression. This study is the first to report significant associations between executive functions and anxiety in ASD. This may suggest that poor executive functioning is one factor associated with the high prevalence of anxiety disorder in children and adolescents with ASD.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2014 · doi:10.1002/aur.1361