Background: 

Autism diagnosis is common in adulthood, particularly for females, and is often noted to be  emotionally impactful, with a lack of post-diagnostic support. Personal identity consists of characteristics that define an individual and differentiate them from others. Autistic personal identity is an individual’s sense of whether autism is part of who they are, as opposed to autistic social identity which involves identifying with other autistic people. The present study hypothesised that more positive personal autistic identity would relate to higher self-esteem and wellbeing, and that earlier diagnosis and longer time passed since diagnosis would relate to more positive personal autistic identity.  

Method:

The study distributed an online survey which was completed by 151 autistic adults, which measured: autistic characteristics, self-esteem, mental wellbeing and personal autistic identity. Lastly, participants were asked how receiving an autism diagnosis affected how they felt about themselves using an open qualitative question.  

Results:

The results showed that greater pride in autistic identity was linked with higher self-esteem and that greater feelings of dissatisfaction with autistic identity related to reports of lower wellbeing. In addition, as the number of years since diagnosis increased, dissatisfaction with autistic identity decreased. In response to the qualitative question, most commonly participants noted there to be an emotional adjustment and adaptation process that over time led to improved satisfaction in autistic personal identity. However, it was noted that there was a lack of external support. Therefore, the study highlighted a clear need for high-quality information and support post-diagnosis.  

This study is available as a preprint here: https://psyarxiv.com/4ns83/ 

Check out the poster here:

Background: 

Autistic people have a higher rate of mental illness compared to non-autistic population, and it is suggested by the minority stress model that marginalised minorities are exposed to a greater burden (minority stress), resulting in health inequalities. However, marginalised minorities may also have access to a unique in-group community which also provides a degree of protection. Thus, autistic community connectedness may play a role in buffering the impact of minority stress on mental health for the autistic community. Therefore, the present study aimed to test whether minority stress could predict worse mental health for the autistic sample, and whether autistic community connectedness buffers against the effects of minority stress on mental health.  

Method:

The study comprised of an online survey which recruited 195 diagnosed autistic or self-diagnosed autistic participants, the survey measured: demographics, general life stress, minority stress, autistic community connectedness and psychological distress.  

Results:

The results showed that exposure to minority stress predicted worse mental health, and that different types of autistic community connectedness moderated the relationships between different types of minority stressors. High rates of belongingness to the autistic community moderated the impact of outness (disclosure), and concealment (masking) on psychological distress. Belongingness and social connectedness were less effective at moderating the effect of internalized stigma on distress. Lastly, political connectedness moderated the impact of internalized stigma on distress more so than belongingness or social connectedness.  

Check out the poster here: 

Each year INSAR holds a research conference (their general annual meeting) which brings together researchers from all over the world. Members from the Stirling Autism Research (STAR) team will be attending the conference this year and presenting work spanning the topics of healthcare access, mental health and quality of life across the adult lifespan, the impact of COVID-19, autistic community connectedness, stigma, and episodic memory and future thinking. There will be several posters from our research group presented, and a panel on stigma co-chaired by Dr Eilidh Cage and Dr Monique Botha. We are using this as a platform for disseminating our research to a global audience, and our research topics focus on matters that can hopefully make a difference to the lives of autistic people, now and in the future.  

Having said that, we wanted to note that although we are attending INSAR to disseminate our research findings to a wider audience, we do not support or endorse the whole range of research that is being presented at INSAR. Autism research can be exceptionally problematic, dehumanizing, and marginalising. As INSAR brings together people globally from a range of disciplines, this includes research on topics such as causes and cures. We do not endorse that kind of research, which are not autistic community priorities (see Roche et al., 2021). We think it is vital that research that does represent autistic community priorities is featured at INSAR.

To promote transparency, clarity, and openness we will be making our contributions available soon, so that everyone can see what we have been researching here at STAR. We will be making accessible explanations of all of work and sharing these via Twitter and our STAR blog  Our first and foremost priority is for ethical, transparent, engaged, and socially proactive research which can make a difference for autistic people.  

If you would like to be involved in shaping or find out more about our research, please contact us by sending an email to autismresearch@stir.ac.uk