Spontaneous helping behavior of autistic and non-autistic (Pre-)adolescents: A matter of motivation?

Abstract

Young autistic people have a range of social difficulties, but it is not yet clear how these difficulties can be explained. In addition, emerging research is suggesting that autistic girls may differ from boys in terms of their social behaviors, but yet unknown is if they differ in terms of their pro‐social behavior, such as helping. The present study investigated spontaneous helping behavior using an in vivo paradigm and related this to participants' levels of social motivation (based on parent reports). Participants were 233 autistic and non‐autistic (pre‐)adolescents (M = 12.46 years, SD = 15.54 months). Our results demonstrated that autistic girls and boys have lower levels of social motivation compared to their non‐autistic peers, but social motivation was unrelated to helping behavior in both groups. Furthermore, when the experimenter needed help, the autistic boys and girls looked and smiled to the same extent as their peers of the same gender, but they actually helped significantly less than their non‐autistic peers. However, most autistic youngsters did help, highlighting the great individual differences in autistic individuals. We discuss the possibility that lower levels of helping behavior are due to difficulty initiating action in a social context, rather than lower social motivation. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1796–1804. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Lay SummaryThis study examined the helping behavior of autistic boys and girls (aged 9–16). Many autistic young people did help, but compared to non‐autistic individuals, autistic people did not help as much. This study also showed that when people did/did not help, it was not related to their interest in social relationships. It is important to teach young autistic people when and how to help others, to support them making friends.