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A rising quantity of individuals are discovering that they’re autistic in maturity. This is particularly the case amongst girls, with a quantity of celebrities – equivalent to mannequin and actuality star Christine McGuinness and TV presenter Melanie Sykes – sharing their experiences of being recognized as an grownup.
Having an autism prognosis in maturity can have advantages, however it has left some questioning what life would have been like in the event that they’d discovered earlier. In our newest examine, we investigated whether or not getting a prognosis at a youthful age is linked to a greater quality of life as an grownup.
We discovered no hyperlink between the age folks obtained a prognosis and the way they felt about their lives.
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To conduct our examine, we requested 300 autistic adults to report the age at which they realized they have been autistic and detailed details about their backgrounds, together with their age, intercourse, ethnicity, relationship standing, revenue, training degree and whether or not they had any psychological well being situations. Recording these particulars was essential as all are linked to quality of life.
We additionally measured contributors’ self-reported degree of autistic character traits. Approximately 43% of contributors have been male, and round 90% of contributors have been white. Around half of the folks in our pattern realized they have been autistic as a baby, whereas the opposite half discovered as adults.
Participants then rated how they felt about their lives by answering questions based mostly on the World Health Organization’s quality of life scale. Some of the questions they have been requested included: “To what extent do you feel your life to be meaningful?” And: “How satisfied are you with the support you get from your friends?”
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Our outcomes confirmed that the age a participant was recognized or turned conscious of being autistic (in the event that they have been recognized very younger and advised later by their mum or dad) was not linked to their quality of life as an grownup. This was true when the affect of different components was thought-about in our evaluation.
Our analysis additionally introduced up an sudden discovering. Autistic girls, after accounting for age, reported a greater quality of life than males total. We aren’t positive what may clarify this discovering, so it will likely be necessary for future research to analyze this distinction.
While lately there’s been a much-needed development in analysis investigating psychological well being in autistic girls, this discovering suggests we should not overlook the wants of autistic males who is likely to be scuffling with their psychological well being.
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Our examine additionally offered additional help for the hyperlink between autism and poor psychological well being. Autistic individuals who had different situations, equivalent to ADHD, nervousness or despair, reported a a lot lower quality of life than those that had none. These outcomes reinforce the necessity for extra focused, personalised help to enhance autistic folks’s psychological well being and quality of life.
Our findings additionally mirror a elementary shift that’s required in autism analysis. For a very long time, autism was considered as a childhood situation. Many folks nonetheless suppose this fashion. What folks could not realise is that the majority autistic folks within the UK, for instance, are adults.
With an ageing society, this sample could improve over the subsequent few a long time. As such, it’s necessary to enhance consciousness that autism isn’t only a childhood situation. This will be certain that each analysis and sensible help obtain proportionate funding, which has traditionally been missing for autistic adults. It may assist extra folks to get the help they want.
It may even be very important for future analysis to deal with highlighting the strengths that autistic adults could have, in addition to the difficulties they could face. This will assist establish the perfect methods to help autistic folks all through their lives and transfer past a one-size-fits-all method to care.
Florence Leung, Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Bath; Lucy Anne Livingston, Lecturer in Psychology, King’s College London, and Punit Shah, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Bath
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