Exploring the association between social skills struggles and social communication difficulties and depression in youth with autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by social communication difficulties and social skills abilities that are significantly differ from neurotypical populations as well as restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests. Furthermore, many autistic youth experience co-occurring conditions, with one of the most common being depression. This depression is suggested to be, in part, the result of the relative social isolation experienced by autistic youth. Therefore, it is important to examine social functioning differences in autistic youth and their association with depression. There has been limited research investigating the association between social communication difficulties and depression, or the association between social skills struggles and depression, and no research investigating both of these in the same population. We found that social communicative symptoms of autism (as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) were not associated with depression scores (as measured by the Revised Checklist for Anxiety and Depression) after controlling for age, sex, and IQ. In contrast, we did find a significant association between social skills struggles (as measured by the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-2) and depression in the same sample. Higher social skills struggles were associated with higher depression scores after controlling for age, sex, and IQ. Reasons for the potential discrepancy between these findings are discussed, and clinical implications of these findings are explored.