Autism最新文献

Despite their relevance to outcomes in autism, little is known about how social drivers of health affect communication, especially in transition-aged autistic adolescents and young adults with structural language impairment. This knowledge gap limits our understanding of developmental trajectories and the ability to develop supports. This cross-sectional study examined the role of social drivers of health in the communication abilities of autistic individuals ages 13-30. Participants (N = 73) completed language, nonverbal cognitive assessments, and social drivers of health (sense of community, unmet services, barriers to services) measures. Data were analyzed descriptively and using mixed-effects modeling. More unmet service needs, more barriers to services, and a lower sense of community were associated with greater social communication impairment. In turn, both unmet service needs and barriers to services were negatively associated with functional communication. In regression modeling, language scores contributed to functional communication, and sense of community to social communication impairment. Findings support the relevance of language and social drivers of health in communication. Future work should focus on possible bidirectional relationships between these variables and explore and real-world translation.Lay AbstractWhere people live, work, and spend their time is important. Environments can have more or less services or differ in how much they help people feel like they belong to their community. These parts of the environment are called social drivers of health. Social drivers of health are important for outcomes in autism, but we do not know much about them in autistic teens or young adults. We recruited 73 autistic teens and young adults (ages 13-30 years) and 52 caregivers to our study. Autistic teens and young adults did language and NVIQ tests on Zoom. Autistic teens, young adults, and caregivers also answered questionnaires. Sense of community was important for social communication impairment, and language was important for real-world communication. These findings tell us two things. First, thinking about how to create supportive communication environments for autistic teens and adults is important. Second, understanding how social drivers of health shape outcomes is important. In the future, we should focus on how improving environments can help autistic teens and adults meet their communication goals.

Social discounting describes the tendency to give fewer resources to those we feel less close to. Previous work suggests autistic individuals show a flatter decline in generosity towards socially distant others compared with non-autistic participants. We investigated whether this enhanced prosociality towards socially distant others in autism was driven by genuinely higher prosociality or instead a preference for repetitive responding. We measured prosocial preferences in 37 autistic and 38 non-autistic adults using the social value orientation questionnaire, where participants allocated money between themselves and people at six different social distances (e.g. friend vs stranger). We replicated previous findings by showing that autistic adults were more prosocial than non-autistic adults towards more socially distant others. Crucially, these effects were not driven by more repetitive responding in autism, nor by differences in attitudes to money. While autistic people often face challenges navigating their social worlds, our findings reinforce the view that autism is also associated with more prosociality. We argue that differences in fairness norms could drive more prosociality in autism, but this remains to be tested in future work.Lay abstractSharing and giving to others are important for our social relationships. Previous studies show that when given opportunities to share money, autistic and non-autistic people give the same amount of money to people they feel close to, like their friends. However, compared with non-autistic people, autistic people give more money to people they feel less close to, like strangers. In this study, we replicated this finding. Compared with non-autistic participants, autistic participants were more generous to people they did not feel close to. We also found that this increased generosity in autism was not the result of autistic participants responding more repetitively in the task. Autistic and non-autistic participants also showed similar attitudes towards money. We propose that some autistic people could be more generous because they show differences in how they think about fairness. But future studies will need to look at this more closely. We hope that our results can help to change the way people think about social behaviour in autism. While autistic people often face challenges navigating their social worlds, autism can also be associated with more generosity.

Non-autistic adults often harbor negative attitudes about autism and show a reluctance to interact with autistic people. For autistic people with multiple marginalized identities, the compounding effects of stigma based on race and disability may worsen peer attitudes. This study investigated first impressions of Black and White autistic adults made by non-autistic observers. Autistic adults (N = 29) stratified by race (15 Black, 14 White) completed a videotaped semi-structured conversation, and non-autistic raters provided their first impressions of each participant. Black autistic people were rated as more likable and trustworthy, and raters endorsed a greater interest in interacting with them, compared to White autistic people. Evidence of intersectional effects of race, gender, and autism was also observed. White autistic men, but not Black autistic men, were evaluated less favorably than non-male autistic participants, with Black autistic men being evaluated more favorably on some items. These results suggest that the intersection of race and autism may, in some cases, counter stereotypes about Blackness and autism, and that holding multiple marginalized identities can modify the characteristics of peer stigma toward autistic adults.Lay abstractMany non-autistic adults have negative feelings about autism and may not want to interact with autistic people. For people who face more than one kind of discrimination, like being part of a racial minority and being disabled, a combination of racism and ableism might make others' opinions even more negative. This study looked at how people's race, gender, and how others judge them are connected when people view videos of Black and White autistic adults. In the first part of the study, 29 autistic adults (15 Black, 14 White) had a conversation with the main researcher, which was recorded on video. In the second part, people who were not autistic watched these videos and shared their thoughts about each person. The results showed that Black autistic people were seen as more likable and trustworthy, and the people watching the videos were more interested in getting to know them compared to White autistic people. The study also found that race, gender, and autism together influenced how people were judged. Black autistic men were often judged similarly to, or better than, non-male participants, while White autistic men were judged less positively than non-male participants. This means that having more than one identity that is discriminated against can change the ways that people view autistic adults, such as allowing Black autistic men to avoid common stereotypes.