Sex differences in the first impressions made by girls and boys with autism.
Meredith L Cola, Samantha Plate, Lisa Yankowitz and 7 others
PMID 32546266WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic boys made significantly worse first impressions than autistic girls, who were rated similarly to typically developing peers.
Clinician ratings of social impairment correlated with first impressions in boys but not girls, suggesting girls may camouflage symptoms during brief interactions.
Key findings
01Boys with ASD received significantly lower first impression scores than girls with ASD and typically developing peers.
02There was no significant difference in first impression scores between autistic girls and typically developing girls or boys.
03First impression scores correlated with clinician-rated social impairment in autistic boys, but not in autistic girls.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size for girls with ASD was smaller than for boys, limiting the ability to detect small effects. Most confederates (raters) were female, which might have influenced scoring if female raters are more forgiving or empathetic toward autistic girls. The study only assessed first impressions from the confederate's perspective, not the participant's experience of the interaction. Participants were verbally fluent children aged 6-18, so results do not generalize to non-verbal individuals or adults.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the McMorris Family Foundation, the Allerton Foundation, and the Eagles Charitable Trust.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a positive first impression indicates a lack of social impairment in autistic girls. The study found that clinician-rated social severity did not correlate with first impression scores in girls, suggesting that brief interactions may fail to reveal underlying deficits that are present.