Autistic children tend to experience difficulties in interaction with peers, which makes them vulnerable to experience feelings of loneliness. This study investigates quantitative and qualitative...Show moreAutistic children tend to experience difficulties in interaction with peers, which makes them vulnerable to experience feelings of loneliness. This study investigates quantitative and qualitative variables related to friendship in relation to self-evaluated feelings of loneliness in both autistic and non-autistic children. Questionnaires and sensor data were used to examine the differences in quantity of friendships (network size, time spent in interaction, number of interaction partners and network centrality) and quality of friendship (reciprocal nominations and acceptance) between autistic and non-autistic children in special education as well as how the variables related to self-evaluated feelings of loneliness. No differences were found between feelings of loneliness in autistic and non-autistic children. Autistic children had fewer interaction partners and spent less time in interaction, but did not have a less central position in their networks or a smaller network size. Besides, autistic children might not have had a lower quality of friendships, as they did not have fewer reciprocal nominations than non-autistic children. Concerning the relationship between feelings of loneliness and quantitative variables, only a significant relationship was found between feelings of loneliness and network size for autistic children. No relationship was found for feelings of loneliness and quantitative variables for non-autistic children. No relationships were found between feelings of loneliness and qualitative variables for both autistic and non-autistic children. Further research should involve examining the differences in feelings of loneliness between autistic children in special and mainstream education.Show less
