Social Motivation Across Multiple Measures: Caregiver‐Report of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Social motivation is a foundational construct with regard to the etiology, neurobiology, and phenotype of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Multiple theories suggest that early emerging alterations to social motivation underlie a developmental cascade of social and communication deficits across the lifespan. Despite this significance, methods to measure social motivation vary widely, with little data to date as to how different measures might compare. In this study, we explore three existing caregiver‐report measures that have been proposed to quantify social motivation among school‐age children with ASD (n = 18; all male) and without ASD (n = 36; 50% female), with the broad goal of characterizing social motivation across measures and specific aims of investigating (a) diagnostic and sex differences in social motivation, (b) correspondence between measures, and (c) relationships between social motivation and broader social outcomes. Across all three measures, individuals with ASD had lower social motivation by caregiver‐report. However, they did display individual differences in the degree of social motivation reported. There were no differences in social motivation between males and females without ASD on any of the three measures. For the full sample, measures of social motivation correlated with one another as anticipated, and stronger social motivation was associated with stronger social skills and fewer social difficulties. Our data suggest that social motivation among children with ASD may be best conceptualized as an individual difference that is diminished on average relative to peers but which varies among children and adolescents with ASD, rather than as an absolute absence or uniform deficit. Lay Summary Several theories suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience less social motivation than their peers without ASD, contributing to difficulties in social skills. Based on multiple caregiver‐report questionnaires, social motivation was reduced on average for school‐age children with ASD but also varied among children with ASD. Stronger social motivation was related to stronger social skills and fewer social problems. Future work should include more girls with ASD, consider social motivation across age groups, and include first‐hand perspectives from people with ASD.

Evaluating causal psychological models: A study of language theories of autism using a large sample

“…In most of the models tested here, the original authors used social withdrawal as the behavioral explanandum ("that which must be explained, " i.e., the behavioral consequence of whichever cognitive mechanism is being examined). While we currently understand that social withdrawal is not a universal feature of individuals who carry an ASD diagnosis (Wing and Gould, 1979;Wing, 1996;Phillips et al, 2019;Neuhaus et al, 2021), the theories we are evaluating tended to conflate social withdrawal with what is now viewed as a broad range of autistic social-communication and social-interaction differences. Because autism encompasses a wide and heterogeneous range of cognitive and behavioral differences, it is possible that unmodeled cognitive and behavioral characteristics could confound the relationships that are explicitly modeled.…”

Social motivation by self‐ and caregiver‐report: Reporter concordance and social correlates among autistic and neurotypical youth

“…The remaining 36 participants did not have an ASD diagnosis (neurotypical [NT] group), and were divided evenly with regard to sex assigned at birth (18 assigned female at birth). See Table 1 for descriptive information, and refer to (Neuhaus et al, 2020) for additional sample characteristics.…”

“…Among children and adolescents, caregiver‐report measures indicate lower mean social motivation among autistic youth relative to peers (Neuhaus et al, 2020; Phillips et al, 2019), as do findings from behavioral response to social versus nonsocial reward (Aldridge‐Waddon et al, 2020) and neurobiological markers of brain connectivity and activation to a range of different social stimuli (Abrams et al, 2013; Dawson, Webb, & McPartland, 2005; Kohls et al, 2012). Beyond diagnostic group differences, existing research also documents associations between individual differences in social motivation and other important social and communication outcomes.…”

“…Beyond diagnostic group differences, existing research also documents associations between individual differences in social motivation and other important social and communication outcomes. Longitudinally, infants' social motivation at 14–30 months of age predicts language skills 2 years later (Su et al, 2021), and higher levels of parent‐reported social motivation among school‐age children with autism correspond to stronger social skills and fewer social difficulties (Itskovich et al, 2021; Neuhaus et al, 2020).…”

Evaluating Causal Psychological Models: A Study of Language Theories of Autism Using a Large Sample

“…In most of the models tested here, the original authors used social withdrawal as the behavioral explanandum ("that which must be explained," i.e., the behavioral consequence of whichever cognitive mechanism is being examined). While we currently understand that social withdrawal is not a universal feature of individuals who carry an ASD diagnosis (Wing and Gould, 1979;Wing, 1996;Phillips et al, 2019;Neuhaus et al, 2021), the theories we are evaluating tended to conflate social withdrawal with what is now viewed as a broad range of autistic socialcommunication and social-interaction differences. Because autism encompasses a wide and heterogeneous range of cognitive and behavioral differences, it is possible that unmodeled cognitive and behavioral characteristics could confound the relationships that are explicitly modeled.…”