Table 2 Description of tests used in the study
Test | Subtests/subscales | Description | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
Faux Pas test (FP) | Cognitive | False belief question which tested whether participants understood the false beliefs of who committed the faux pas | Socio-cognitive abilities |
Affective | Affective question which tested the emphatic understanding of how the person in the story would feel | ||
Strange Stories task (SS) | Mentalistic stories | Ability to understand people’s mental states (i.e., cognitive components of ToM) and described situations in which two or more characters interact with each other in social contexts | Socio-cognitive abilities |
Physical stories | Ability to make inferences on physical (rather than mental) events and required the integration of information between sentences and inference from implicit information | ||
Reading Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) | Experimental test | Ability to infer affective mental states of the person in the photograph (i.e. affective components of ToM) | Socio-cognitive abilities |
Control test | Judge the gender of the person in the photograph | ||
Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS) | Social Information processing | Own beliefs to understand and predict other people’s behavior and feelings | Socio-cognitive beliefs |
Social skills | Own beliefs to understand basic communication skills in social situations | ||
Social Awareness | Own beliefs to behave in accordance with social situations | ||
Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) | Factor 1 (F1) | Items are referred to the ability to identify feelings and distinguish them from bodily sensations | Alexithymia traits |
Factor 2 (F2) | Items related to a concrete thinking style | ||
Factor 3 (F3) | Items concerning the ability to express emotion and fantasy (daydreaming) | ||
Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) | Social Skill | Items assessing social skills in social situation | Autism traits |
Lubben Social Network Scale-Revised (LSNS-R) | Relatives | Each subscale (six items) containing items that measure size, closeness, and frequency of contact within respondent’s social network | Social relationships |
Friends | |||
Friendship Scale (FS) | Total score | Overall sum scores assessing perceived social support | Social relationships |
Levels of social support | Classification of responders into five levels of perceived social support: (1) very socially isolated, (2) isolated, (3) some social support, (4) socially connected, and (5) highly socially connected. Due to low frequencies, the first two and the last two categories were combined to create three levels of perceived social support: low (scores 0–15), moderate (scores 16–18), and high (scores 19–24) social support | ||
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) | Anxiety | Items assessing the severity of anxiety symptoms | Psychological assessment |
Depression | Items assessing the severity of depression symptoms | ||
World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) | - | Items assessing levels of quality of life | Quality of life assessment |