Characterizing Transdiagnostic Processes Underlying the Drive to Socially Engage: A Multimeasurement Factor Analytic...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Altered social engagement is a common feature in various psychopathologies.
• Understanding specific social drive processes and their measurement remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of measuring fine-grained social drive processes using theoretical frameworks.
• To explore difficulties in social orienting, wanting, pursuing, liking, learning, and reticence.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of secondary data from 2,663 participants (ages 5-21) in the Healthy Brain Network.
• Factor analyses of caregiver-report questionnaires to identify social drive factors.
• Examination of factor structure replicability across demographic and diagnostic subsamples.

Main Results:

• A three-factor solution (social reticence, seeking, maintaining) best fit the data.
• Factor structure was consistent across subsamples, demonstrating good reliability.
• Social drive factors showed differential associations with IQ, age, and sex, with autism spectrum disorder exhibiting the most challenges.

Conclusions:

• A multi-instrument approach can capture specific social drive difficulties beyond standard measures.
• Existing questionnaires have limited coverage of key social processes like orienting and liking.
• Development of new measurement tools is needed to fully assess social drive processes.