Chen Yu-Lun, Schneider Maxwell, Patten Kristie
Department of Occupational Therapy, New York University, New York, NY, United States.
Fresh Path NY, New York, NY, United States.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 22;13:946651. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.946651. eCollection 2022.
The double empathy problem theory posits that autistic social difficulties emerge from an interpersonal misalignment in social experiences and expectations between autistic and non-autistic people. Supporting this, emerging research reveals better social outcomes in interactions within than across neurotypes among autistic and non-autistic people, emphasizing the need to examine the role of the interpersonal context in autistic social outcomes. However, research on peer relationships among autistic youth primarily focuses on individual characteristics in isolation from the interpersonal context. To address this, this preliminary study explored the effects of student-peer neurotype match on peer relationships among autistic and non-autistic youth in an integrated educational setting. We plotted the peer relationship networks among youth in a school club based on systematic observations of peer interactions over eight 45-min sessions. Descriptive network statistics (node degree and strength) showed that both autistic and non-autistic youth had more and stronger peer relationships with their same- than cross-neurotype peers. Assortativity coefficients revealed a tendency for youth to connect with peers of the same neurotype, rather than with peers with similar social popularity or activity. We further modeled the effects of student-peer neurotype match on peer relationships using exponential random graph models. The findings suggested that student-peer neurotype match predicted the total strength of peer relationships above and beyond the effects of student neurotype, individual heterogeneity in social popularity and activity, and the tendency of mutuality in social relationships. We discussed the strengths and limitations of this study and the implications for future research and inclusion practice.
双重共情问题理论认为，自闭症患者的社交困难源于自闭症患者与非自闭症患者在社交体验和期望上的人际错位。支持这一观点的是，新出现的研究表明，在自闭症患者和非自闭症患者之间，同神经类型的人之间的互动比不同神经类型的人之间的互动能产生更好的社交结果，这强调了研究人际背景在自闭症社交结果中的作用的必要性。然而，关于自闭症青少年同伴关系的研究主要集中在与人际背景无关的个体特征上。为了解决这个问题，这项初步研究探讨了学生与同伴神经类型匹配对综合教育环境中自闭症和非自闭症青少年同伴关系的影响。我们根据对八次45分钟课程中同伴互动的系统观察，绘制了学校俱乐部中青少年的同伴关系网络。描述性网络统计数据（节点度和强度）显示，自闭症和非自闭症青少年与同神经类型的同伴相比，与跨神经类型的同伴拥有更多、更强的同伴关系。 assortativity系数显示，青少年倾向于与同神经类型的同伴建立联系，而不是与社会受欢迎程度或活动相似的同伴建立联系。我们进一步使用指数随机图模型对学生与同伴神经类型匹配对同伴关系的影响进行建模。研究结果表明，学生与同伴神经类型匹配预测了同伴关系的总强度，超出了学生神经类型、社会受欢迎程度和活动中的个体异质性以及社会关系中的相互性倾向的影响。我们讨论了这项研究的优点和局限性以及对未来研究和融合实践的启示。
