The characteristics of social skills, school maladjustment and stress responses in junior high school students with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

  Objective: The purpose of this study was to test difference between the social skills of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their typically developing students.” Methods: Participants were 299 junior high school students from public schools. The group included 19 junior high school students with ASD. Participants responded to self-rated questionnaire on social skills, school maladjustment, and stress. Results: Results showed that adolescent with ASD had mental health difficulties (in stress responses and school maladjustment) and poor social skills as compared to their typically developing peers. A cluster analysis was conducted by dividing the participants into the following four groups based on their z-scores on the social skills scale: “low skill type”, “low skill of continuing relationship type”, “well-balance type”, and “inactive type”. A Chi-square test revealed that a greater portion of the ASD group included students belonging to the “inactive, authoritative and low type” and “inactive type” cluster as compared to the typically developing group. Conclusions: The Adolescent with ASD have social skills characterized by inactive type that poor entry skills.