Patterns of Continuity and Change in the Psychosocial Outcomes of Young Autistic People: a Mixed-Methods Study.

Patterns of Continuity and Change in the Psychosocial Outcomes of Young Autistic People: a Mixed-Methods Study.
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2019 Dec 03;:
Authors: Pellicano E, Cribb S, Kenny L
Abstract
Long-term longitudinal studies have consistently demonstrated that the outcomes of autistic individuals are highly variable. Yet, these studies have typically focused on aspects of functioning deemed to be critical by non-autistic researchers, rather than autistic people themselves. Here, we uniquely examined the long-term psychosocial outcomes of a group of young autistic people (n = 27; M age = 17 years; 10 months; 2 female) followed from childhood using a combination of approaches, including (1) the standard, normative approach, which examined changes in diagnostic outcomes, autistic features and adaptive functioning over a 9-year period and (2) a qualitative approach, which involved semi-structured interviews to understand young people's own subjective experiences of their current functioning. On average, there was no significant change in young people's diagnostic outcomes and autistic features over the 9-year period, although there was much variability at the individual level. There was far less variability, however, in young people's everyday functioning, with marked declines over the same period. While these often-substantial everyday challenges aligned well with young people's subjective reports, there was no straightfo...

Source: Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology - December 2, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Pellicano E, Cribb S, Kenny L Tags: J Abnorm Child Psychol Source Type: research