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Brief Report: Parent–Adolescent Informant Discrepancies of Social Skill Importance and Social Skill Engagement for Higher-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Parent- and adolescent-report of social skill importance and social skill engagement on the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham and Elliott in The social skills rating system, American Guidance Service, Circle Pines, 1990) were assessed in higher-functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Compared to parents, adolescents reported that social skills were less important. Additionally, adolescents reported that they engaged in social skills more frequently than parents reported them to be engaging in social skills. Parents, but not adolescents, reported a discrepancy between importance and engagement, such that the importance of social skills was rated higher than the frequency of adolescent engagement in social skills. These results suggest that social skills interventions for individuals with ASD may need to target awareness of social skill importance and accurate monitoring of social skill engagement.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. Although verbal IQ did not have a significant effect on Cooperation in the final ANCOVA, verbal IQ was retained as a covariate in this model due to its prior significance in the model-building process.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by two grants from the National Institute of Mental Health: a T32 Institutional Research Training Grant (PI: Sally Rogers, 5-T32MH073124-06) and a K-08 Career Development Award (PI: Marjorie Solomon, 1-K-08 MH074967-01). The authors thank Scott Birkestrand, Ryan Dent, Anthony Evaristo, Niki Ghaderi, Claire Hara, Mussarat Iqbal, Aimee Sands, Fiona Tsang, and Kelsey Urauchi for their contributions. A version of this paper was presented at the 2013 Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

This study was approved by the appropriate ethics committee and was performed in accordance with ethical standards. Participants assented and parents consented to participation in the current study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 3C Institute, 4364 Alston Avenue, Suite 300, Durham, NC, 27713, USA

    Camilla M. McMahon

  2. M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California – Davis, 2825 50th Street, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Marjorie Solomon

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  1. Camilla M. McMahon
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  2. Marjorie Solomon
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Correspondence to Camilla M. McMahon.

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McMahon, C.M., Solomon, M. Brief Report: Parent–Adolescent Informant Discrepancies of Social Skill Importance and Social Skill Engagement for Higher-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 3396–3403 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2494-6

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