Autism in Adulthood最新文献

Background: While previous work highlights the links between nature and various positive well-being-related outcomes, the experiences of autistic people in nature have received limited empirical research. Our study aimed at gathering autistic adults' perspectives on the relationship between nature and well-being in both childhood and adulthood.

Methods: We used an online survey to capture the views of 127 autistic adults across the United Kingdom. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we analyzed responses to three questions focused on nature experiences in childhood and adulthood and how the participants felt that nature was (or was not) related to well-being. Guided by self-determination theory, we used both inductive and deductive analysis.

Results: We developed three main themes to reflect the nature experiences of autistic adults: choosing to escape into nature, supporting relatedness through connecting in (and to) nature, and nature doesn't judge, but other people do. Compared with many other contexts, nature provides a non-judgmental space through which (in both childhood and adulthood) many, but not all, autistic individuals can meet individual needs and experience autonomy, relatedness, and competence.

Conclusion: This analysis of how autistic adults in the United Kingdom utilize nature to support well-being has implications for how nature can be used in social prescribing as well as in ensuring that existing outdoor spaces, organizations, and activities are supportive of autistic people.

Background: The World Health Organization recommended that individuals use a facemask to prevent the ongoing spread of COVID-19. Many governments implemented this recommendation into law. However, the increased usage of facemasks may have had particular impacts on the autistic population, due to differences in emotion processing, sensory issues, and anxiety about regularly changing rules. This research aimed to investigate the lived experiences of autistic people when wearing facemasks and their experiences interacting with others wearing facemasks.

Methods: First, the research team conducted a content analysis of social media posts (n = 124) created by autistic individuals. Based on this, we developed a novel questionnaire and distributed it so that autistic adults could share their facemask experiences (n = 49).

Results: Seven main themes were identified from the social media analyses: general attitudes toward masks, sensory issues, "wear-a-mask" message, rules and expectations, sunflower lanyards, social problems and benefits, and mask exemption. Secondary questionnaire responses highlighted that the experience of facemasks was mixed. Many individuals experienced sensory issues. Yet, for some individuals, there were benefits: they did not have to monitor their facial expressions to camouflage their autistic responses. Participants reported differing opinions on the topic of mask exemption, and the sunflower lanyard as a symbol of mask exemption. Data did not suggest anxiety around rule changes but did suggest feelings of anger at others who were perceived not to be following the rules.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the mixed experiences of autistic people with facemasks and suggest lessons for future events in which there are rapid changes to public health messaging.

Background: Self-determination, described broadly as experiencing causal agency, is positively associated with quality of life (QoL) and increases through satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy (feeling able to make choices free from pressure), competence (perceived self-efficacy), and relatedness (social connection). Both unsupportive environments and challenges with social interaction can interfere with satisfaction of psychological needs. Social challenges are a key trait for autism diagnosis, and unsupportive environments are also known to adversely affect QoL for autistic people. Autistic people report, on average, lower self-determination than non-autistic people. Therefore, it is hypothesized that higher levels of autistic traits may reduce opportunities to develop self-determination, affecting QoL.

Methods: We tested a parallel indirect effects model where we hypothesized that the relationships between autistic traits and four domains of QoL (psychological, social, physical, and environmental) would be indirectly influenced through self-determination (represented through satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness). This study drew participants from the general population (N = 262; M _AGE = 37.6, standard deviation = 11.92; 1.9% reported an autism diagnosis and 2.7% identified as autistic without a diagnosis). Participants completed an online survey.

Results: Higher levels of autistic traits were associated with lower levels of self-determination and lower levels of QoL, and there was a significant indirect effect between autistic traits and QoL via self-determination. More specifically, we found a significant indirect effect between autistic traits and all QoL domains via competence; between autistic traits and the environmental, social, and psychological QoL domains via relatedness; and between autistic traits and the physical and environmental QoL domains through autonomy.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that supporting satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness may represent an important element in designing effective programs to support the development of self-determination in people with higher levels of autistic traits (potentially including autistic individuals) and also to support these people to improve their QoL.

Background: Previous studies of community priorities for autism research have been limited by low representation of autistic people and thus a bias toward the views of families and professionals. We aimed to determine the first community-led priorities for autism research in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ).

Methods: Autistic people were essential partners in the project, from inception and design through to methods and outputs. We gathered the views of the autistic and autism communities (including family, practitioners, and researchers) through focus groups (n = 55) and an online survey (n = 450). Almost 40% of the survey respondents indicated that they were autistic.

Results: The findings across the focus groups and survey highlighted the importance of research that centralizes the experiences and needs of autistic people, particularly of autistic New Zealanders, including culturally specific research for Māori and Pacific peoples. All five priority topics for autistic adults were also priorities for at least one other group: (1) Health, mental health, and well-being of autistic people (all groups); (2) Services across the life span (autistic adults, health care/disability, and education practitioners); (3) Needs of autistic people in Aotearoa NZ (autistic adults, whānau); (4) Perspectives from autistic people with a diverse range of support needs (autistic adults; education practitioners); (5) Quality of life of autistic people in Aotearoa NZ (autistic adults; health care/disability practitioners).

Conclusions: We discuss the advantages of autistic involvement in research, and how these community priorities can inform future research and policy in NZ.

Introduction: The transition to young adulthood can be a turbulent life stage, and this is often magnified for autistic youth. Young adults frequently profess different goals and values than their parents. While there is some indication in autism research about how parents, and to a lesser extent, autistic young adults, feel about this transition, little research leverages dyadic interviews with both populations or has used this method with Black and/or low-income families.

Method: We conducted four sets of dyadic interviews with autistic young adults and their parents who live together.

Results: We identified three key themes that both groups found important to the transition: independence, structured transition, and interpersonal relationships. However, we found that how the groups conceptualized these themes were divergent and revealed differences in goals and values. Parents were more oriented toward long-term normative views of fulfillment, whereas young adults spoke about what was meaningful to them currently.

Conclusion: This work has implications for changes to how autism research will conceptualize the transition to young adulthood and how we can create better social opportunities for this population.

Community brief: Why is this an important issue?: Autistic adults are at risk for difficulties getting work and education, which can lead to them feeling alienated or unfulfilled. Most research on autistic people becoming adults is based on White people with more cultural and financial resources and does not ask autistic people themselves or their families with them. Research is needed to improve transition outcomes for these underresearched and underserved groups.What was the purpose of this study?: This study explored how autistic youth and their parents thought about and experienced the transition to adulthood out of an urban, low-resourced school district.What did the researchers do?: Researchers interviewed four parents and four autistic youth. Three families were Black, and one family was White and from a low-income household. All autistic youth had received special education services, needed support to transition to adulthood, and had finished high school 1 to 6 years before the study. The young adults lived with their mothers and received support from them for daily tasks. We interviewed the parents and then the youth. In some cases, youths joined parents' interviews or parents joined youths' interviews to provide help with remembering information or giving answers.What were the results of the study?: Researchers identified three themes. First, parents and youth thought about independence differently. Parents focused more on work and financial independence. Youth focused more on social aspects of work and having independence in daily activities such as shopping. The second theme was that youth a

Little evidence is available to provide context for understanding the experiences of parents and youth from historically marginalized groups as they age into adulthood, especially in regard to the transition experiences of Black autistic transition-age youth and their family members. This commentary builds upon recent publications that inform intersectional understandings of Black autistic experiences in America, and outlines research recommendations to better address the specific needs of Black autistic transition-age youth. Given the noted deficits in transition research and the transition process in regard to the experiences of Black autistic youth, we provide recommendations for improving autism transition research. We propose changes that are necessary to achieve equitable research processes, which could inform the design of targeted interventions to improve transition experiences for Black autistic youth.