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Self‐perception of competencies in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders
Author(s) -
Furlano Rosaria,
Kelley Elizabeth A.,
Hall Layla,
Wilson Daryl E.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
autism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.656
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1939-3806
pISSN - 1939-3792
DOI - 10.1002/aur.1491
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , autism , competence (human resources) , task (project management) , developmental psychology , autism spectrum disorder , typically developing , cognition , cognitive psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , management , neuroscience , economics
Research has demonstrated that, despite difficulties in multiple domains, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show a lack of awareness of these difficulties. A misunderstanding of poor competencies may make it difficult for individuals to adjust their behaviour in accordance with feedback and may lead to greater impairments over time. This study examined self‐perceptions of adolescents with ASD ( n = 19) and typically developing (TD) mental‐age‐matched controls ( n = 22) using actual performance on objective academic tasks as the basis for ratings. Before completing the tasks, participants were asked how well they thought they would do (pre‐task prediction). After completing each task, they were asked how well they thought they did (immediate post‐performance) and how well they would do in the future (hypothetical future post‐performance). Adolescents with ASD had more positively biased self‐perceptions of competence than TD controls. The ASD group tended to overestimate their performance on all ratings of self‐perceptions (pre‐task prediction, immediate, and hypothetical future post‐performance). In contrast, while the TD group was quite accurate at estimating their performance immediately before and after performing the task, they showed some tendency to overestimate their future performance. Future investigation is needed to systematically examine possible mechanisms that may be contributing to these biased self‐perceptions. Autism Res 2015, 8: 761–770 . © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.