Violations of Personal Space in Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Williams Syndrome: Insights from the Social Responsiveness Scale

Lough, Emma; Hanley, Mary; Rodgers, Jacqui; South, Mikle; Kirk, Hannah; Kennedy, Daniel P.; Riby, Deborah M.

doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2536-0

Cited by 26 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This replicates the findings by Lough et al (2015a); reinforcing the notion that interpersonal distance regulation is highly atypical in individuals with WS, although the participant demographics between the two groups differ. In the second part of the study, the stop-distance paradigm was utilised, and found that individuals with WS maintained an overall shorter interpersonal distance than the TD individuals.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…It has frequently been used in the typicallydeveloping population, but also with young people with WS (e.g. Klein-Tasman et al, 2011;Riby et al, 2014;Lough et al, 2015a). From the responses, five sub-scale scores can be generated in the areas of: social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation and autistic mannerisms (see Table 1).…”

Section: Methods Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other items also examined by both Kennedy and Adolphs (2014) and Lough et al, (2015a) refer to multi-modal construct of personal space, including item 52 ("Knows when he or she is talking too loud or making too much noise), item 56 ("Walks in between two people who are talking") and item 63 ("Touches others in an unusual way e.g. he or she may touch someone just to make contact with them then walk away without saying anything").…”

Section: Social Responsiveness Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As individuals with WS show indiscriminate approach behaviour (Little et al, 2013), and a lack of stranger danger awareness (Riby et al, 2013), their personal space regulation when interacting with others is an important facet when looking at their social vulnerability profile (Jawaid et al, 2012;Lough et al, 2015b). Lough et al (2015a) offered the first insights in to personal space regulation in WS and ASD, using the same methods employed by Kennedy and Adolphs (2014). They found that individuals with WS were reported by their parents to show the least awareness of personal space boundaries, when compared to reports from parents of individuals with ASD and TD individuals.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our aim was to obtain a more comprehensive insight in to this issue by utilising information from a parent report questionnaire and experimental work involving the individuals with WS themselves. Based on the work of Lough et al (2015a), as well as what we know about the WS social profile, large effect sizes were predicted, and the hypotheses were as follows: 1) Children and adolescents with WS would receive higher scores on SRS items relating to personal space than their TD peers; 2) In the stop-distance task, young people with WS would let unfamiliar people approach and stand at a closer interpersonal distance than TD children and adolescents, and 3) In the same task, young people with WS would approach and stand closer to an unfamiliar person than their TD peers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personal Space Regulation in Williams Syndrome: The Effect of Familiarity

Lough

Flynn

Riby

2016

J Autism Dev Disord

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. (2016) 'Personal space regulation in Williams syndrome : the e ect of familiarity.', Journal of autism and developmental disorders., 46 (10). 3207-3215. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2864-8Publisher's copyright statement:The nal publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2864-8Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractPersonal space refers to a protective barrier that we strive to maintain around our body. We examined personal space regulation in young people with Williams syndrome (WS) and their typically developing, chronological age-matched peers using a parent report questionnaire and a stop-distance paradigm. Individuals with WS were reported by their parents to be more likely to violate the personal space of others, and indeed they maintained a shorter interpersonal distance in the stop-distance paradigm. Interestingly, WS individuals failed to regulate their personal space based on the familiarity of the person they were interacting with.Findings are discussed in relation to the wider social profile associated with WS, and the possible impact of atypical personal space regulation on social vulnerability. 2Personal space regulation in Williams syndrome: The effect of familiarity When engaging in social interactions, individuals must regulate the distance that they maintain between themselves and other people (Hall, 1996). Personal space is defined as the area around a person's body, which if invaded, can cause feelings of discomfort and anxiety (Perry et al., 2013). Vignemont and Iannetti (2015) outline different types of personal space.Peripersonal space refers to the space around one's body where an object can be grasped, whereas extrapersonal space is the area around the body that is just beyond reach. Indeed, , 1997). The current study is concerned with the protective peripersonal space (herein referred to as simply 'personal space'), and its implications for social vulnerability levels in Williams syndrome.For typically developing individuals, regulating this personal space is a largely automatic process, guided by situational cues, social cues and cultural norms (Beaulieu, 2004). The ability to successfully collate these cues and maintain an appropriate interpersonal distance contributes to successful and positive social interactions (Gessaroli et al., 2013).However, it is known that some individuals with developmental disorders find social interactions challenging, and they may also...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Methods Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Social Responsiveness Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personal Space Regulation in Williams Syndrome: The Effect of Familiarity

Lough

Flynn

Riby

2016

J Autism Dev Disord

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Greater interpersonal distance in adults with autism

Fusaro,

Fanti,

Chakrabarti

2023

Autism Research

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Social interactions are often shaped by the space we prefer to maintain between us and others, that is, interpersonal distance. Being too distant or too close to a stranger can often be perceived as odd, and lead to atypical social interactions. This calibration of appropriate interpersonal distance thus constitutes an important social skill. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, hereafter autism) often experience difficulties with this skill, and anecdotal accounts suggest atypical interpersonal distances in their social interactions. In the current study, we systematically measured interpersonal distance in individuals with autism using immersive virtual reality (IVR) to recreate a naturalistic interaction with a full body avatar of a similar age. Participants observed their own virtual body in first‐person perspective, and the other avatar in two tasks: in the first task, they approached the other avatar (active), in the second one they were approached by the other avatar (passive). Two groups of neurotypical and autistic adults, performed both tasks. Autistic adults showed greater interpersonal distance when compared to non‐autistic adults. Additionally, the difference between the passive and active conditions was smaller for non‐autistic compared to autistic adults. Across the full sample, greater interpersonal distance was associated with higher autism‐related traits. This study provides systematic evidence for greater interpersonal distance in autistic adults using a paradigm with high ecological validity and can be useful in informing the design of appropriate environmental adjustments for shared spaces.

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