Understanding Friendship Sex Heterophily and Relational Characteristics to Optimize the Selection of Peer Models for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Jill Locke, Ariana Anderson, Lindsay Frederick and 1 others
PMID 29982894WHAT IT FOUND
For boys with autism, having more friends was linked to higher social connection in class; having female friends was linked to lower connection.
Girls did not show this pattern.
Key findings
01Children with ASD who had more friends had higher social connectivity.
02For boys with ASD, having friends of the opposite sex was associated with lower social connectivity than for comparable girls and lower than for boys who had more same-sex friends.
03For girls with ASD, having opposite-sex friends was not associated with social connectivity; only receiving more friendship nominations was associated with higher connectivity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study analysed 126 children with ASD, and the authors said it may be underpowered to detect smaller effects. IQ and ethnicity were missing at high rates, so those factors could not be fully examined. All main analyses were at baseline before the intervention, so they describe associations in naturally formed friendships, not effects of the intervention. The friendships were not assigned by adults; children were not randomly matched to peer models, so cause cannot be inferred. Only one child with ASD was in each classroom, and classrooms were from under-resourced public schools, so results may not apply to more diverse settings. The sample was 72% male, and the authors noted possible unexamined sex differences in friendship behavior.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that assigning male peer models will improve social connectivity for boys with autism. This study observed naturally formed friendships at baseline and could not show that any peer characteristic caused a change.