How do autistic people fare in adult life and can we predict it from childhood?

Abstract

This study describes social, mental health, and quality of life outcomes in early adulthood, and examines childhood predictors in the Special Needs and Autism Project (SNAP), a longitudinal population-based cohort. Young autistic adults face variable but often substantial challenges across many areas of life. Prediction of outcomes is important to set expectations and could lead to the development of targeted early intervention. Autistic children were enrolled at age 12 and parents reported outcomes 11 years later when their children were age 23 (n = 121). Thirty six percent of autistic adults were in competitive employment or education and 54% had frequent contact with friends. Only 5% of autistic adults were living independently, and 37% required overnight care. Moderate or severe anxiety and depression symptoms were found for 11% and 12% of young adults, respectively. Subjective quality of life was similar to UK averages except for social relationships. Using childhood IQ, autism traits and adaptive functioning meaningful predictions can be made of living situation, employment and education and physical health. Prediction was poor for friendships, mental health outcomes and other aspects of quality of life. Our results suggest that although young autistic adults face challenges across normative, social outcomes, they may be faring better in regard to mental health or quality of life. Childhood IQ, autism traits and adaptive functioning are most useful for predicting outcomes. After accounting for these factors, childhood measurements of behavioral and emotional problems and language offered little improvement in prediction of adult outcomes. Lay SummaryWe asked parents of 121 autistic people questions about their children at age 12 and again, 11 years later in early adulthood. The autistic young adults faced challenges in employment and education, and many needed support for everyday living. We could make good predictions of these challenges using information from childhood. For other aspects of adult life, including mental health and quality of life, we could not make meaningful predictions of individual difficulties using the information we collected in childhood. K E Y W O R D S adults, anxiety, children, longitudinal data analysis, psychopathology, risk factors The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

O impacto dos transtornos de ansiedade na qualidade de vida de pessoas com TEA: uma revisão narrativa

“…Os transtornos de ansiedade são a segunda doença psiquiátrica mais comum depois da depressão, e estão entre as maiores causas de incapacidade e afastamentos laborais (SANTANA et al, 2016;SZUHANY;SIMON, 2022). Muitas pessoas com TEA enfrentam dificuldades com educação e emprego (FORBES et al, 2023), apresentando taxas mais baixas de empregos do que colegas que não possuem TEA, o que pode afetar negativamente a qualidade de vida (LAWSON et al, 2020). No entanto, muitos adultos com TEA não recebem tratamento de saúde mental eficaz e acessível.…”

Research Reviews: Advances in methods for evaluating child and adolescent mental health interventions

“…In the field of autism, there have long been opponents to the search for a cure and more recently even the reduction of symptoms, prompting a reassessment of the goals of intervention (Costello & Maughan, 2015; Georgiades & Kasari, 2018). Possible solutions to this are to work with service users in choosing and designing preferred and possibly more functional or impairment‐based outcomes, or for individual participants to choose their own outcome structured within a measure such as the Goal‐Attainment Scale (Kiresuk, Smith, & Cardillo, 1994), or by the use of a broad set of outcome measures to which could be assigned relative weights, chosen by each participant or their carer, to be used in forming a weighted composite outcome (Forbes et al., 2022). The goal of co‐produced research remains a challenge to implement (PARTNERS2, 2020) but broad‐based and structured attempts to reach consensus guidelines (e.g.…”