Poster #49 - Responses to Friendship Transgressions: Similarities and Differences in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Developmental Disabilities

Integrative Statement

Background: Friendships are peer relationships involving reciprocal liking and mutual affirmation of friendship, which endures over time (Asher, MacEvoy, & McDonald, 2008; Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) form fewer friendships, and experience friendships of shorter duration than their typically developing (TD) peers (Bauminger & Shulman, 2003; Lock, Ishijima, Kasari, & London, 2010). This is concerning, as friendships can offer emotional satisfaction and support, and contribute to a variety of developmental achievements (Berndt, 2004). How children respond when friends transgress their expectations may impact friendship longevity. Children with ASD often perceive and react to social situations differently than their TD peers (Humphrey & Symes, 2011; Klin, Jones, Schultz, & Volkmar, 2003; Ochs, Kremer-Sadlik, Sirota, & Solomon, 2004), which may result in differences in responses to friendship transgressions. Understanding responses to transgressions can aid researchers in designing interventions to support friendship maintenance in children with ASD. In this study, we report on two research questions from this project, which we consider exploratory: (a) do responses to friendship transgressions differ for children with ASD as compared to TD children?, and (b) within the ASD group, do severity ratings differ by type of transgression?
Methods: Twenty elementary students with ASD and 21 TD students participated in this study. All student were in 3rd-5th grade, and were matched on mental age (M = 10.12 years, SD = 1.48) and gender (n = 5 boys per group). Hypothetical vignettes depicting betrayal, failure to provide validation, failure to provide instrumental help, and being an unreliable partner were presented individually to participants via computer-based surveys by research staff. Following each vignette, participants were asked to rate the extent to which the vignettes evoked different emotions, their interpretation of the event, the goals they would pursue following such an event, the strategies they would use to achieve their goal, the likelihood they would forgive a friend for similar transgression, and the severity of their emotions. Responses to transgression were analyzed via a series of simple regressions to determine group differences. Dependent samples t-tests were used to determine if there were differences in severity ratings between the different transgression categories within the ASD group.
Results: When responses were averaged across all 8 vignettes, children with ASD rated sadness lower than TD children, and rated verbal aggression strategies higher than TD children. There were no other significant group differences. Many non-significant differences were associated with effect sizes < 0.30 suggesting population differences may be of limited clinical utility. Results also indicated that betrayal was considered the most serious transgression within the ASD group. See Figure 1 for violin plots of severity ratings for all 4 transgression ratings for this group.
Conclusion: This study highlights some differences, and many areas of likely similarity in the ways in which children with ASD and TD children respond when friends transgress friendship expectations. Increased emotional responses and increased aggression strategies in children with ASD could be due to previous negative friendship experiences in this group, differences in perceptions about friendship transgressions, or a combination of the two.

Authors

• Kristen Bottema-Beutel, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Caitlin Malloy, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Josephine Cuda, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• So Yoon Kim, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie MacEvoy, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author