Social anxiety is common among adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this modest-sized pilot study, we examined the relationship between social worries and gaze patterns to static social stimuli in adolescents with ASD (n = 15) and gender-matched adolescents without ASD (control; n = 18). Among cognitively unimpaired adolescents with ASD, self-reported fear of negative evaluation predicted greater gaze duration to social threat cues (i.e., faces depicting disgust and anger). By comparison, there was no relationship between self-reported social fears and gaze duration in the controls. These findings call attention to the potential import of the impact of co-occurring psychopathology such as social anxiety, and particularly fear of negative evaluation, on social attention and cognition with adolescents who have ASD.
CITATION STYLE
White, S. W., Maddox, B. B., & Panneton, R. K. (2015). Fear of Negative Evaluation Influences Eye Gaze in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(11), 3446–3457. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2349-6
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