title: Relations Between Nonverbal and Verbal Social Cognitive Skills and Complex Social Behavior in Children and Adolescents with Autism.
abstract: Although there is an extensive literature on domains of social skill deficits in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), little research has examined the relation between specific social cognitive skills and complex social behaviors in daily functioning. This was the aim of the present study. Participants were 37 (26 male and 11 female) children and adolescents aged 6-18 years diagnosed with ASD. To determine the amount of variance in parent-rated complex social behavior accounted for by the linear combination of five directly-assessed social cognitive variables (i.e., adult and child facial and vocal affect recognition and social judgment) after controlling for general intellectual ability, a hierarchical regression analysis was performed. The linear combination of variables accounted for 35.4 % of the variance in parent-rated complex social behavior. Vocal affect recognition in adult voices showed the strongest association with complex social behavior in ASD. Results suggest that assessment and training in vocal affective comprehension should be an important component of social skills interventions for individuals with ASD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, University of California-San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, S362, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA. carlydemopoulos@gmail.com.|Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3102 South State Street, Suite 252, Chicago, IL, 60616-3793, USA. carlydemopoulos@gmail.com.|Mind Research Network, Pete & Nancy Domenici Hall, 1101 Yale Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106, USA. carlydemopoulos@gmail.com.|Biomagnetic Imaging Laboratory, Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, University of California-San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, S362, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0628, USA. carlydemopoulos@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Carly
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2082-3947
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Demopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3102 South State Street, Suite 252, Chicago, IL, 60616-3793, USA.
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hopkins
authors.affiliation: Mind Research Network, Pete & Nancy Domenici Hall, 1101 Yale Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106, USA.|Departments of Psychology and Neurology, University of New Mexico, 1 University Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87031, USA.|Lovelace Scientific Resources, 2425 Ridgecrest Dr., Albuquerque, SE, 87108, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lewine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D066107:Social Skills; D013060:Speech
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Emotion recognition; Facial affect recognition; Prosody; Social behavior; Social cognition; Social perception; Social problems; Vocal affect recognition