Social Anxiety in Autistic People: Does the Clark and Wells Model fit?

The sample was heavily skewed towards women, White participants, and those with higher education, limiting generalisability to men, ethnic minorities, and those with lower educational attainment. Very few participants had co-occurring learning disabilities, so results cannot be applied to this group. The measures for the Clark and Wells model were not originally developed for autistic people, so they may not capture autism-specific thoughts or behaviours. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine whether autistic traits cause social fears or how variables interact over time. Recruitment via social media and snowball sampling may introduce selection bias towards digitally connected and engaged individuals.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was approved by the Newcastle University Faculty of Medical Sciences Research Ethics Committee. Data and analysis scripts are available on the Open Science Framework.

Do not assume that reducing safety behaviours will be the most effective therapy target for autistic clients. While the Clark and Wells model explains half the variance in social fear, the link between safety behaviours and fear was significantly weaker in autistic people, suggesting these behaviours may serve functions other than anxiety reduction, such as managing sensory overwhelm or social communication differences.