Who reports it best? A comparison between parent-report, self-report, and the real life social behaviors of adults with Williams syndrome

Abstract

Given the reliance on self-report in studies of adults with intellectual disabilities, this study examined individual versus parental reports concerning the social approach behaviors of adults with Williams syndrome (WS) across a hypothetical and a live behavioral setting. Individuals with WS (N = 30) were asked whether they would approach strangers in two hypothetical, laboratory tasks (yes/no questionnaire vs. judging facial stimuli of individuals with different emotional expressions). Similarly, their parents also responded to a rating scale of their child's social approach behavior toward strangers displaying various emotions. Then, in a community setting, behavioral coders recorded actual social approaches of individuals with WS toward strangers. Although self-report ratings were consistent across measures, these measures did not correspond to the individuals' actual behaviors during the community observations. Conversely, parental reports did not correspond to their child's self-report measures, but parents did more accurately predict their child's real-life social approach behaviors. Implications are discussed for both research and practice.

Internet use and online safety in adults with Williams syndrome

“…The KBIT is a psychometric measure used to assess verbal, nonverbal and full-scale IQ. It can be used with individuals aged 4-90 years, and has been used in several previous studies with individuals with WS (for examples see Dykens et al 2001;Fisher et al 2014;Mervis et al 2012).…”

“…; Fisher et al . ). Such heightened willingness to approach someone simply based on their picture (without knowing anything about the person) has significant implications when considering the online vulnerability of individuals with WS, where often the only information available about a person is their online profile (e.g.…”

“…Several studies (e.g. Bellugi et al 1999;Jones et al 2000;Martens et al 2009;Fisher et al 2014) have examined social approach behaviour by presenting photographs of faces displaying various emotions and asking participants to indicate how much they would like to approach and interact with each person (e.g. Adolphs Approachability Task; Adolphs et al 1998).…”

“…Research consistently reports that compared to chronologically age-matched peers, individuals with WS are more willing to approach the faces displaying positive (e.g. happy) facial expressions (Bellugi et al 1999;Jones et al 2000;Frigerio et al 2006;Porter et al 2007;Martens et al 2009;Fisher et al 2014). Such heightened willingness to approach someone simply based on their picture (without knowing anything about the person) has significant implications when considering the online vulnerability of individuals with WS, where often the only information available about a person is their online profile (e.g.…”

Autonomic response to approachability characteristics, approach behavior, and social functioning in Williams syndrome

“…Likewise, it is possible that those with WS have atypical autonomic responsivity that act as physiological signals to approach others in casual social situations. At the same time, it is noteworthy here, however, that in studies comparing correspondence of self-ratings of approachability of individuals with WS to their actual approachability in real life, self-perceptions have been found to lack ecological validity (Fisher, Mello, & Dykens, 2014b; Järvinen-Pasley et al, 2010). Specifically, parents of adults with WS have been found to provide most accurate predictions of real-life approach behavior of individuals with WS (Fisher et al, 2014b).…”