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The Association Between Social Skills and Mental Health in School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, With and Without Intellectual Disability

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Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is associated with social skills deficits and co-occurring mental health difficulties. ASD frequently co-occurs with Intellectual Disability (ID). There is scant literature exploring the association between social skills and mental health in children with ASD, with or without ID. Participants were 292 children aged six to 13 with ASD (217 without ID; 76 with Mild ID). Parents and teachers rated social skills and mental health using standardised questionnaires. Greater mental health difficulties were associated with greater social responsiveness difficulties and poorer social skills across the sample. Effect sizes were large. Social skills explained a significant proportion of the variance in mental health scores across the sample. The study has important implications for treatment and future research.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to gratefully acknowledge and thank the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney for their support of this project. We would also like to acknowledge and thank the NSW Department of Education and Communication for their partnership in this project and their support in organising the study and the time given by the school counsellors, teachers and parents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Medicine, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead, Sydney, NSW, 2145, Australia

    Belinda Ratcliffe, Michelle Wong & David Dossetor

  2. The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Belinda Ratcliffe

  3. Behavioural Sciences in Medicine, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Rm 667, Blackburn Building D06, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Susan Hayes

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  1. Belinda Ratcliffe
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  2. Michelle Wong
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  3. David Dossetor
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  4. Susan Hayes
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Correspondence to Belinda Ratcliffe.

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Ratcliffe, B., Wong, M., Dossetor, D. et al. The Association Between Social Skills and Mental Health in School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, With and Without Intellectual Disability. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 2487–2496 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2411-z

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