Social Skills Challenges, Hurt Feelings, and Social Problem-Solving Goals in Children with ASD

• In Event: Socio-cognitive abilities in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with social problem solving (SPS; Russo-Ponsaran, 2015) demonstrating varying levels of difficulty with encoding/understanding social problems (Mazza, 2017) and generating effective solutions (Ziv, 2014). Individuals with ASD have a tendency to make negatively-valenced choices in response to social transgressions (Bottema-Beutel, 2019) and focus more on outcome than intent in determining willingness to forgive those transgressions (Roge & Mullet, 2011). While individuals with ASD are more likely to attribute hostile intention to neutral social problems and exhibit less prosocial responses, little research has examined how social problem identification, particularly identification of hurt feelings, may influence SPS goal selection in this population. Additionally, while prior literature has evaluated the relationship between components of social cognition (e.g. Theory of Mind; Mazza, 2017) and broad SPS in ASD, how these relate to negatively-valenced SPS goals remains unclear.

Methods: SELweb, a computerized, self-administered assessment of social cognition (McKown, 2015; Russo-Ponsaran, 2019), including a SPS task (Figure 1), was completed by 58 children with ADOS-2-confirmed ASD (44 male; M =8.53, SD =1.33) and IQ≥80 (M =103.72, SD =14.33). χ2analyses were used to explore the relationship between SPS goal valence (Table 1) and feelings-oriented problem identification. Social skills were assessed in children who identified a social problem was present (n=46) using parent-report questionnaires (Social Responsiveness Scale, 2nd Edition; SRS; Constantino & Gruber, 2012; Social Skills Improvement-Rating Scales; SSIS; Gresham & Elliott, 2008; Table 1). Pearson’s correlations were conducted between social skills and SPS goal valence.

Results: There was a relationship between SPS goal valence and identifying a problem as feelings-related: individuals who always identified social problems as feeling-related were more likely to select a negatively-valenced SPS goal, X2 =16.073, p<.05 (Table 1). Total SRS T-Score (r=.260, p=.08) and SISS standard scores (r=-.273, p=.07) were also marginally correlated with SPS goal valence. These correlations were driven by social cognition skills and restricted/repetitive behaviors (SRS), such that individuals with greater parent-report of social cognition difficulties (r=.353, p<.05) and restricted/repetitive behaviors (i.e. perseverative and rigid thinking; r=.294, p<.05) made more negatively-valenced SPS goal selections. Parent-report of social responsibility skills (SSIS) also indicated that individuals who exhibited more difficulties fulfilling social responsibilities made more negatively-valenced SPS goal selections (r(46)=.420, p<.01).

Conclusion: Children with ASD who always identified social problems as feelings-related (i.e. it hurt their feelings) were more likely to also choose negative-valenced SPS goals. Greater parent-reported challenges in social cognition, specifically perseverative and rigid thinking, and social responsibility deficits were also related to greater incidence of identifying problems as feelings-related. This combination should be further explored, as it suggests that these hurt feelings may arise from correctable behaviors of the individual but be misattributed to others. Previous work found children with ASD exhibited similar distress levels to peer rejection as typically developing children (Sebastian, 2009; Matsen, 2011). This study extends that research by identifying relationships between SPS goals and the subjective emotional experience of the social problem at hand.

Authors

• Morgan L McNair, Stony Brook Unviersity
  Presenting Author

• Victoria Mondejar, Stony Brook Univeristy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicole H Mordekai, Stony Brook University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicole Russo-Ponsaran, Rush University Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matthew D Lerner, Stony Brook Unviersity
  Non-Presenting Author