Exploring the relationship between measures of self-esteem and psychological adjustment among adolescents with Asperger syndrome.

This exploratory study examines the relationships between self-esteem and psychological adjustment among 19 adolescents with Asperger syndrome and 19 typically developing adolescents using a model developed by Harter. The groups were matched for age (mean 13 years), sex (M:F 16:3) and ethnicity (white British). Participants completed four quantitative measures examining self-competencies, social approval, anxiety, depression and self-worth.

Persecutory beliefs, attributions and theory of mind: comparison of patients with paranoid delusions, Asperger's syndrome and healthy controls.

Schizophrenia patients with persecutory delusions and patients with Asperger's syndrome were compared using two measures of theory of mind (ToM; the ability to infer mental states in other people), the Hints task, and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, and a new measure of attributional style (style of inferring the causes of important events), the Attributional Style Structured Interview (ASSI). Paranoid beliefs were measured using Fenigstien and Vanable's Paranoia Scale (PS). The deluded group had the highest scores on the Paranoia Scale but the scores of the Asperger's group's were higher than those of the controls.