An Examination of the Relationship Between Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Functioning, and Social Skills in Children

There is a dearth of research looking at how autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and IQ scores impact social skills. The present study aimed to extend the literature in this area by evaluating how ASD and IQ scores are related to ratings on a measure of appropriate and inappropriate social skills. Children without ASD and children with ASD participated in this study. Adaptive and maladaptive social skills were assessed with the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills for Youngsters-II (MESSY-II). Correlational and multiple regression analyses were then conducted. ASD diagnosis significantly predicted both adaptive/appropriate and hostile/inappropriate social skills. Children with ASD tended to have lower scores on the measure of adaptive/appropriate social skills, while displaying higher scores on the measure of hostile/inappropriate social skills. Children with higher IQ scores tended to have higher scores on the measure of adaptive/appropriate social skills. The implications of these findings are discussed.