Autism spectrum disorder, often called ASD, is a developmental condition that affects how people communicate, interact socially, understand emotions, and experience the world around them.
Autism can appear very differently from person to person. Some autistic individuals may speak fluently and live independently, while others may need lifelong support with communication and daily activities.
Scientists have studied autism for decades, yet many questions remain unanswered. One of the biggest questions is how social differences develop over time and why autistic people often experience social situations differently from non-autistic people.
Now, researchers from Beijing Normal University, Peking University, and several other research institutes have completed one of the largest studies ever conducted on social functioning in autism.
Their findings suggest that social differences in autism often begin very early in life and continue to change throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
Instead of focusing on only one social skill, the researchers wanted to examine the “big picture” of social functioning in autism.
Professor Yin Wang, one of the senior authors of the study, explained that previous autism research often looked at only isolated abilities such as emotion recognition or eye contact. However, real social behavior is much more complicated because many social skills are connected together and influence one another over time.
To better understand these connections, the scientists carried out a massive review and analysis of 2,622 studies conducted over the past 35 years.
The research included participants from 32 countries and involved autistic and non-autistic individuals ranging from infants as young as six months old to adults in their 50s.
The team studied 22 different aspects of social functioning. These included social attention, empathy, imitation, communication, theory of mind, social relationships, and emotional understanding.
Theory of mind refers to the ability to understand that other people may have different thoughts, feelings, or beliefs.
The researchers did not simply ask whether autistic individuals perform differently in social situations. Instead, they carefully examined how earlier studies were designed, what kinds of tasks researchers used, when social differences first appeared, and how cultural factors influenced development.
To analyze this enormous amount of information, the scientists used advanced statistical methods including systematic review, meta-analysis, moderator analysis, and structural equation modeling.
These techniques allowed them to identify patterns across thousands of earlier studies.
One of the most important findings was that social differences in autism do not appear randomly.
Instead, the researchers found evidence that social development in autism may follow a hierarchical pattern.
According to the study, early differences in social motivation may influence the development of later social skills.
For example, if a young child is less naturally drawn toward social interaction, this may reduce opportunities to practice and develop more advanced social abilities later in life.
The researchers describe this as a cascading developmental effect, where small early differences gradually shape later experiences and behaviors over time.
The study also showed that social functioning in autism is highly dynamic rather than fixed.
Some social differences may become more noticeable during certain stages of development, while others may change or improve as autistic individuals grow older and gain experience.
Another major finding was the strong influence of culture and society.
The researchers found that countries with higher levels of perceived social support tended to show smaller social differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals.
In contrast, countries with more competitive social environments and stronger masculinity-focused cultural values tended to show larger differences.
This suggests that autism is not shaped only by biology. Social environments, public attitudes, educational systems, and cultural expectations may also strongly influence how autistic individuals experience social life.
The findings challenge older views that treated autism only as a fixed biological condition separated from social context.
Instead, the study suggests that social functioning develops through ongoing interactions between biology, personal experiences, and cultural environments.
The researchers believe their findings may help improve support services and therapies for autistic people in the future.
Current clinical assessments often focus on only a few narrow areas of social functioning and may fail to capture the full complexity of autistic social experiences.
Professor Wang said one important future goal is to create more comprehensive and modern tools for measuring social functioning in autism.
The researchers also hope to combine behavioral studies with brain imaging and computer modeling to better understand how the autistic brain develops socially over time.
Another long-term goal is developing personalized support strategies tailored to the unique social strengths and challenges of different autistic individuals.
Rather than assuming all autistic people experience the same difficulties, researchers hope future interventions can become more flexible and individualized.
The study also supports growing interest in neurodiversity-informed approaches. Neurodiversity emphasizes understanding autism as a natural variation in human thinking and behavior rather than simply a disorder that must always be “fixed.”
If you care about autism, please read studies that cats may help decrease anxiety for kids with autism and new study may develop better treatment for autism
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