Social motivation by self- and caregiver-report: Reporter concordance and social correlates among autistic and neurotypical youth.
Emily Neuhaus, Raphael A Bernier, Sara Jane Webb
PMID 37987233WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic children’s self-reports of social motivation matched their actual social skills better than caregiver reports did.
Caregivers and children disagreed specifically about motivation with peers, suggesting clinicians should ask the child directly rather than relying solely on parent observation.
Key findings
01Self-reported social motivation in autistic youth correlated with their social skills and difficulties, whereas caregiver-reported motivation did not.
02Caregivers and autistic youth disagreed on social motivation with peers, showing no correlation between their reports in that context.
03Caregivers rated social motivation higher than the children rated themselves, and neurotypical children rated motivation higher than autistic children did.
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 was small, particularly for the autistic group (n=22), which limits the stability of the findings. The study only included verbally fluent children, so results may not apply to non-speaking or minimally verbal autistic youth. The group was predominantly male, so the findings may not generalize to autistic females. The measure of social motivation had lower internal consistency for neurotypical children's self-reports, making those specific data points less reliable.
Declared interests
The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of correlation between caregiver reports and social outcomes as caregivers being inaccurate or biased. The study shows caregivers and children measure different things: caregivers report on what they observe, while children report on their internal drive. The discrepancy in peer motivation means both perspectives are needed, not that one is wrong.