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Caution When Screening for Autism among Socially Anxious Youth

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Abstract

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is commonly comorbid with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, in a sample of 86 children and adolescents (MAGE = 12.62 years; 68.6% male), 28 of whom were diagnosed with ASD, 34 with SAD, and 24 with comorbid ASD and SAD, we compared parent-reported scores from the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS-2; Constantino and Gruber in Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS; Constantino and Gruber 2012) to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the measure in cases of differential diagnosis between SAD and ASD. Results suggest that neither the subscales, nor the SRS-2 total score, consistently differed between ASD and SAD. Sensitivity and specificity analyses suggested that the SRS-2 total poorly discriminated ASD from SAD. When screening socially anxious youth for possible ASD, caution should be taken.

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Notes

  1. Data were merged since there were no significant differences in SRS-2 subscale scores or the SRS-2 total (ps = .179-.919) between the two data sets.

  2. When analyses were conducted without the ASD + SAD group (i.e., ASD only vs. SAD only), sensitivity (.61) and specificity (.50) values remained largely consistent.

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Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, Grant R34MH104337 [PI: White].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Youth Development and Intervention, The University of Alabama, Box 870348, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0348, USA

    Nicole N. Capriola-Hall & Susan W. White

  2. Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, USA

    Tyler McFayden & Thomas H. Ollendick

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  1. Nicole N. Capriola-Hall
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  2. Tyler McFayden
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NCH proposed the research question, conducted the data analyses, and contributed to writing the paper. TM assisted with data analyses and contributed to writing the paper. THO contributed to writing and editing the paper and co-designed and executed this study. SWW PI of the grant supporting this research, co-designed and executed the study, contributed to writing and editing the paper.

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Correspondence to Nicole N. Capriola-Hall.

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Capriola-Hall, N.N., McFayden, T., Ollendick, T.H. et al. Caution When Screening for Autism among Socially Anxious Youth. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 1540–1549 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04642-w

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