Examining three connected concepts: Social impairment and STEM; Broader autism phenotype; and convergence validity in autistic trait screening tools

The societal cost of ASD is enormous, and the concept of broader autism phenotype (BAP) adds more weight to the situation. The recent reporting of the higher prevalence rate of ASD in India [1] (Chauhan et al., 2019) and social impairment implications suggest a serious attempt to understand this situation. Present work reports finding from a pilot study in this direction. This work examines three related concepts: 1) hypothesized connection between social impairment/autistic trait and STEM education/profession; 2) existence of broader autism phenotype, and 3) convergence validity between two most widely used autistic trait screening tool (autism spectrum quotient and social responsiveness scale). We conducted this study on 85 student participants with autism spectrum quotient, social responsiveness scale, reading Mind in the eye test, and metacognitive questionnaire. The data collection was done using a paper-pencil test, google form, and E-prime software. The results suggest the possible connection between autistic trait-STEM and BAP. However, the convergence validity between autism spectrum quotient and social responsiveness scale is not found unexpectedly. We discuss the implication, limitations, and suggestions.