Metaperception in Adolescents With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Lauren V Usher, Catherine A Burrows, Daniel S Messinger and 1 others
PMID 29080926WHAT IT FOUND
After a brief first meeting, teens with and without autism mostly guessed how peers saw them from their own feelings, not from peers' ratings.
Believing they were liked went with smoother conversation and more attempts to connect.
Key findings
01Teens' guesses about whether peers liked or disliked them did not match peers' actual ratings after the brief interaction.
02Teens tended to project their own feelings: liking a peer predicted believing the peer liked them, and disliking a peer predicted believing the peer disliked them.
03Believing they were liked was associated with more reciprocal conversation and more attempts to start and share; believing they were disliked was associated with less reciprocity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The final sample was small, with 25 adolescents in each group, so group differences could be unstable. Only adolescents without intellectual disability were included, and the autism group had moderate to high IQ levels, so the findings may not apply to many autistic adolescents seen in clinics. The interaction was a single five-minute meeting with an unfamiliar peer, so results may not reflect school, therapy, or longer relationships. Participants who completed both visits had higher verbal IQ than those who completed only one visit, which may have selected a higher-functioning sample. Co-occurring anxiety or depression was not measured, even though these conditions could affect how teens interpret peer feedback. The study compared only pairs made up of one adolescent with autism and one typically developing adolescent, so it cannot show how accuracy changes when adolescents with autism meet other adolescents with autism. The questionnaire was newly developed, and its accuracy findings rely on a small sample and a one-time laboratory task. Direction of effects is unclear: beliefs about being liked may influence behavior, or behavior may influence beliefs.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The supplied text does not report a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that adolescents with autism are generally better at knowing how peers see them. The overall accuracy result was null, and the autism-group link to peers' liking was only borderline, so it is a small-sample finding that needs confirmation.