CC BY 4.0 DEED Attribution 4.0 InternationalCamus, LornaJones, KirstyO'Dowd, EmilyAuyeung, BonnieRajendran, GnanathusharanStewart, Mary Elizabeth2024-05-232024-05-232024-05-11Camus, L., Jones, K., O’Dowd, E., Auyeung, B., Rajendran, G. and Stewart, M.E. (2025) ‘Autistic traits and psychosocial predictors of depressive symptoms’, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 55(7), pp. 2368–2376. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06361-y.0162-3257https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/13736https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06361-yLorna Camus - ORCID: 0000-0002-9340-712X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9340-712XHigher rates of depression and of depressed mood are associated with autistic traits, and both are associated with social interaction factors, such as social self-efficacy, social motivation and loneliness. This study examined whether these social factors explain the association between autistic traits and depression. 658 participants (527 women) completed an online survey with measures of autistic traits (AQ), social self-efficacy (Social Self-Efficacy Scale), social motivation (Social Striving Assessment Scale), loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale) and depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II). A mediation analysis found the relationship between autistic traits and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by the other three factors (β[indirect] = .005, z = 2.63, p < .01; β[direct] = .05, z = 1.58, p > .05), forming a pathway from autistic traits, to social self-efficacy, to social motivation, to loneliness and finally to depressive symptoms. These results suggest that targeting social self-efficacy may break this pathway and disrupt this relationship. Interventions targeting supporting positive social interaction should be considered.2368–2376enOpen Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Autistic TraitsSocial Self-efficacySocial MotivationLonelinessDepressive SymptomsMediation AnalysisArticle