Social Media Use, Friendship Quality, and the Moderating Role of Anxiety in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Gerrit I van Schalkwyk, Carla E Marin, Mayra Ortiz and 6 others
PMID 28616856WHAT IT FOUND
In adolescents with autism, social media use they found useful was linked to better friendship quality, but only when anxiety was low.
High anxiety weakened the link. No association appeared in adolescents without autism.
Key findings
01Among adolescents with autism, parent-reported friendship quality was associated with social media utility and time spent, while adolescent-reported friendship quality was associated with social media utility.
02Among adolescents with autism, the association between social media utility and friendship quality was present only when anxiety was lower, and was not present when anxiety was average or high.
03Among adolescents without autism, social media utility and time spent were not associated with parent- or adolescent-reported friendship quality.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The design was cross-sectional, so it can show association but not whether social media use caused changes in friendship quality. The sample came from clinical settings at one centre and included adolescents with normal intellectual function, so results may not apply to adolescents with lower cognitive ability or those not in school. The social media experience measure was developed for this study, and its factor structure and reliability were examined only within this sample. The anxiety moderation finding was clearer with parent report than with adolescent self-report. The comparison group had diverse psychiatric symptoms and included youth from an anxiety program, so it may not represent peers without clinical problems.
Declared interests
All authors declared no conflicts of interest. The supplied text does not state a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that social media use improves friendship quality in autism. The study is cross-sectional and shows only an association, and the association was not present when anxiety was average or high and was absent in adolescents without autism.