Testing the social motivation theory of autism

The role of co‐occurring anxiety

Bibliographic Data

ID21344295
AuthorsEloise Bagg (Department of Psychology University of Bath Bath UK), Hannah Pickard (0000-0002-6717-502X, Department of Psychological Sciences Birkbeck, University of London London UK), Manting Tan (Department of Psychology University of Bath Bath UK), Tim J Smith (0000-0002-2808-9401, Department of Psychological Sciences Birkbeck, University of London London UK), Emily Simonoff (0000-0002-5450-0823, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) King's College London London UK), Anthony Pickles (0000-0003-1283-0346, King's College London), Andrew Pickles (Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics, IoPPN King's College London London UK), Virginia Carter Leno (0000-0002-7455-5514, Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics, IoPPN King's College London London UK), Rachael Bedford (0000-0002-8581-055X, Department of Psychology University of Bath Bath UK, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume65
Issue7
Pages899-909
Publication date2024-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9630 • E-ISSN: 1469-7610
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jcpp.13925
PMID38156503
OpenAlexW4390397883
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited69

BACKGROUND: The Social Motivation Theory proposes that social reward processing differences underlie autism. However, low social motivation has also been linked to higher anxiety. Given the co-occurrence between autism and anxiety, it is possible that anxiety drives the association between social motivation and autistic characteristics. This study tests the mechanisms underlying the association between social motivation and autistic traits. METHODS: Participants were 165 adolescents (71 male), aged 10-16 years, from the Mapping profiles of cognition, motivation and attention in childhood (C-MAPS) study, enriched for autistic traits (70 participants with an autism diagnosis, 37 male). Participants completed a battery of online experimental tasks, including a Choose-a-Movie social motivation task and social cognition measures (theory of mind; emotion recognition), alongside parent-reported child anxiety and autistic traits. RESULTS: Higher social motivation was significantly associated with lower autistic traits (β = -.26, p < .001). Controlling for social cognition did not change the association between social motivation and autistic traits. Controlling for anxiety did significantly reduce the strength of the association (unstandardized coefficient change: p = .003), although social motivation remained associated with autistic traits (β = -.16, p = .004). Post hoc analyses demonstrated differential sex-effects: The association between social motivation and autistic traits was significant only in the females (β = -.38, p < .001), as was the attenuation by anxiety (unstandardized coefficient change: p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The association between social motivation and autistic traits could be partially attributed to co-occurring anxiety. Sex-specific effects found in females may be due to environmental factors such as increased social demands in adolescent female relationships. Results are consistent with self-report by autistic individuals who do not identify as having reduced social motivation

Anxiety · Association (psychology) · Autism · Cognition · Developmental psychology · Psychiatry · Social anxiety · Social cognition · Social inhibition · Theory of mind · Autism Spectrum Disorder Research · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues · Clinical Psychology · Psychology

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