Loneliness and Friendship in High-Functioning Children with Autism

• Published in: Child development Vol. 71; no. 2; pp. 447 - 456
• Main Authors: Bauminger, Nirit, Kasari, Connie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, USA and Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishers Inc 01.03.2000; Blackwell Publishers; Blackwell; University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc
• Subjects: Adolescent; Autism; Autistic children; Autistic disorder; Autistic Disorder - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child clinical studies; Child development; Child psychiatry; Child psychology; Childhood mental disorders; Children; Cognition - physiology; Cognitive Development; Companionship; Comparative Analysis; Developmental disorders; Early Adolescents; Female; Friendship; Friendships; Humans; Infantile autism; Interpersonal Relations; Loneliness; Loneliness - psychology; Male; Medical sciences; Peer Relationship; Personality and Social Development; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Quality of Friendship; Relationship Quality; School age children; Social Perception; Human; Friendship; Autism; School age; Peer relation; Social interaction; Social isolation; Adolescent; Clinical form; Developmental disorder; Child; Preadolescent
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00156

Loneliness and friendship were examined in 22 high-functioning children with autism and 19 typically developing children equated with the autistic children for IQ, CA, gender, mother's education, and ethnicity. Children between the ages of 8 and 14 were asked to report on both their understanding and feelings of loneliness and the quality of their friendship. Compared to typically developing children, children with autism were both lonelier and had less complete understandings of loneliness. Although all children with autism reported having at least one friend, the quality of their friendships was poorer in terms of companionship, security, and help. Fewer associations were found between loneliness and friendship for the autistic than for the non-autistic children, suggesting less understanding of the relation between loneliness and friendship. Implications of these results are discussed for conceptualizing the social deficits in autism.