Socialization via Online Gaming: Perspectives of Five Autistic Adolescents and Their Parents

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Hughes, C. & Nguyen, L. (2024). Socialization via Online Gaming: Perspectives of Five Autistic Adolescents and Their Parents. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 33(3), 777-792. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02727-5

Publication date: 17 Jan 2024 Added to AutiHub: 25 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Caitlin Hughes *
  2. Lan Nguyen

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated whether autistic adolescents are socially motivated to play Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and sought to explore whether parents’ perceptions of MMORPGs and the closeness of the parent-child relationships’ impact upon gaming habits. In a qualitative-based study, we explored the perspectives of five pairs of autistic adolescents and one of their parents. The themes identified through adolescent interviews indicated that autistic adolescents who play MMORPGs perceive that in-game socializing enhances their gaming experience which motivates them to socialize with other players and facilitates development of friendships. The themes derived from interviewing parents indicated that parents perceive social benefits to playing MMORPGs for their child, but there are factors that impact their support of socializing via gaming such as their own game use, attitudes towards socializing via games, and the amount of time their child spends gaming. This study’s findings suggest that playing MMORPGs can potentially enhance quality-of-life for autistic adolescents through increased socialization and friendships and highlights the importance of the parent-child relationship and how this supports autistic adolescents to develop socially. However, as there were no parent-child pairs reporting low closeness, the transferability of these findings may be limited to parent-child pairs with close relationships. This research indicates that parents who play games alongside their autistic child are more likely to be more understanding of, and acknowledge, the social benefits of gaming in helping their child develop socially. These findings have implications for the development of cost-efficient, accessible interventions to facilitate socialization.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:40.

Cited references
26
With a DOI
24
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
2
0 / 26 (0.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 26 (15.4%)
References with detected author names
25 / 26 (96.2%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
2
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
90
From DOI or external metadata
90
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
17 / 90 (18.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 73 / 90 (81.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
0 / 90 (0.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 0 / 17 (0.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 0 / 86 (0.0%).
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