1.2 SOCIAL MEDIA USE IMPROVES FRIENDSHIP QUALITY IN ADOLESCENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Objectives: The consequences of social media use on peer relationships and other psychosocial outcomes are increasingly recognized to be heterogeneous, and the need to study specific subgroups and outcomes has been highlighted. Youth with ASD likely represent a unique subgroup because of the nature of their social difficulties. This study reports on the social media experience of youth with ASD and its relationship to friendship quality and social anxiety. Methods: Youth with ASD and age-matched clinical control subjects participated in a cross-sectional study involving the administration of the following: Multimodal Anxiety Scale Children (MASC-2, parent and child); the Friendship Questionnaire; and a newly created measure, the Social Media Experience Scale, which was created for this study. Here, we report on participants enrolled in the first wave of recruitment (N - 69). Results: In youth with ASD, a significant positive correlation was found between social media use and friendship quality (r - 0.343, P < 0.05), which was consistent with our hypothesis. Furthermore, overall anxiety symptoms were correlated with a degree of anxiety experienced during social media use (r - 0.432, P < 0.05). By contrast, in non-ASD clinical control subjects, there was a significant positive correlation between cell phone use and friendship quality (r - 0.522, P < 0.05). Conclusions: Our preliminary data suggest that social media use may have benefits in improving friendship quality in youth with ASD, although those who experience anxiety in other contexts are likely to experience online anxiety as well.