Journal article
Fear of Negative Evaluation and Social Anxiety in Autism: A Case for Multi-method Assessment
Journal of autism and developmental disorders
08 Nov 2025
PMID: 41205088
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Fear of negative evaluation is a diagnostic criterion for social anxiety disorder (SAD). Research demonstrates this may not always occur in autistic individuals who have other markers of SAD. We aimed to characterize fear of negative evaluation in autistic children utilizing a sample of 239 autistic youth ages 10-16.
Participants completed self-report questionnaires of social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. They also participated in a conversation task coded by trained observers to measure social anxiety.
Although self-reports of social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation were strongly correlated, they did not match in-the-moment coding of social anxiety from trained observers; this may be partially explained by differences between state and trait experience and the conversational environment. Furthermore, greater levels of autistic traits related to higher levels of social anxiety and to fear of negative evaluation.
Fear of negative evaluation, which is the primary cognitive process involved in social anxiety, was strongly associated with social anxiety in this autistic sample of youth.
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Details
- Title
- Fear of Negative Evaluation and Social Anxiety in Autism: A Case for Multi-method Assessment
- Creators
- Alexandra Kalinyak - University of AlabamaGrace Lee Simmons - Youth DevelopmentBlythe Corbett - Vanderbilt University Medical CenterMatthew Lerner - Drexel University, Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)Susan W White - Virginia Tech
- Publication Details
- Journal of autism and developmental disorders
- Publisher
- Journal of autism and developmental disorders
- Grant note
- CTSA UL1 TR000445 / National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences P50 HD103537 / Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R01MH114906 / National Institute of Mental Health
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology); A.J. Drexel Autism Institute
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001610084300001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105021255083
- Other Identifier
- 991022130758604721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Psychology, Developmental